. 





Copyright N?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



THE CARE OF THE 



CHILD 



BY 



Mrs, Burton Chance 




THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 

1909 



n*S 



c* 



COPYRIGflT 
1909 BY 
THEPENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



The C*re of the Child 



r. a 
SEP 21 '1909 



"The mother's province lies not in the use of 
drugs, but in a knowledge of the conditions of 
health, and how they may be preserved by intel- 
ligent care and judicious feeding. She must be 
guided by her judgment, not her impulse, and in 
all her training she should have some well-defined 
policy; since a medium policy, well executed, is 
better than the best of theories not carried out. * ' 

L. Emmett Holt, M.D. 



CONTENTS 



I. PREPARING FOR THE BABY. 

The baby's first wants. The basket. The baby's 
clothes. The bed, and how to make it. Impor- 
tance of regularity in caring for the infant. A 
few questions that may trouble the young mother 9 

II. THE VALUE OF HEALTH. 

When the new-born child should be nursed 
Daily regimen 34 

HI. THE 1ATH. 

How to give it. Daily care of the eyes, the 
mouth, the ear, the nose, the hair. Exercise . . 47 

IV. ARTIFICIAL FEEDING. 

One bottle a day, with formula. How to prepare 
the bottles. The refrigerator. How to feed the 
baby. Formulae. The milk — Pasteurized, steril- 
ized, modified. Quantity of food to be given at 
each meal. Weaning. Other foods than milk for 
the baby. Food for the second year. Questions 
that may trouble the mother about the baby's food 62 

V. THE SICK BABY. 

How to be a good nurse. A few rules for the 
mother while in the sick room. The sick room. 

5 



6 CONTEXTS 

Ventilation. Heat. Medicines. Meals. Visitors. 
When should the doctor be sent for? Earache. 
Mouth-ulcers. Croup. Colic. Sore eyes. Bil- 
iousness. Cold. Patent medicines. How to help 
the doctor 98 

VI. CARE OF THE WELL CHILD. 

Importance of regular daily regimen. Exercise. 
Care of teeth 117 

VII. DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD. 

How the mother can diagnose them in their 
early stages. Disinfectants. Fumigation . . . 133 

VIII. EXAMPLE — OBEDIENCE — THE CHILD' S QUESTIONS. 

Example, and what it means to the child. Obe- 
dience and how to enforce it. The child's ques- 
tions and how to meet them 163 

IX. BAD HABITS OF CHILDREN. 

Some bad habits commonly found in children, 
and how to correct them. Imagination in children. 
The value of toys. Table manners 176 

X. THE AWKWARD AGE. 

Some of the problems presented by the growing 
boy or girl. The importance of the father's com- 
panionship and the value of sympathy .... 208 

XI. EDUCATION. 

Kindergarten. School. What education means 
to the child. Individuality in children .... 228 



PREFACE 

This book is not intended in any way to take 
the place of medical advice, nor does it pre- 
sume to give suggestions upon any more vital 
questions than those pertaining to the practical 
care of the normal child. It is designed with 
the hope that it may help the average mother 
to solve her daily problems. It is particularly 
designed for mothers who have not a physician 
near by to turn to in the little perplexities 
of nursery life. 

I am convinced that many of the deaths 
yearly among infants occur primarily because 
the mothers do not know what to do in little 
things. In the life of a child it is the little 
things that count. 

There is nothing suggested in this book that 
has not been fully proved practicable and help- 
ful, by the careful weighing of facts and re- 
sults gained, for the most part, through per- 
sonal experience. 

I wish to take this opportunity of thanking 
the editors of " The American Home 

7 



8 PREFACE 

Monthly," u The New Idea Magazine," 
" Vogue," " The Designer " and " The Phil- 
adelphia Press " for their courteous permis- 
sion to use in this book a few thoughts which 
appeared in article form in their pages. The 
frontispiece also is used by permission of " The 
Philadelphia Press." 



THE 
CARE OF THE CHILD 

CHAPTER I 

PREPARING FOR THE BABY 

In preparing for the new baby, it must be 
remembered that there are, besides those prac- 
tical things essential to the child's health and 
comfort, a vast number of unnecessary objects, 
attractive in themselves, yet contributing in 
no way to his definite growth or development. 
The choice of these, the great army of non- 
essentials, may be left to the individual taste 
of every mother, for in the end they count for 
very little. The essentials do count, however, 
and the young mother should understand fully 
and intelligently what are the essential needs 
of her child, and do all in her power to supply 
them. At this time we will concern ourselves 
only with the essentials, and try to outline them 
in a practical way, so that they may be easily 

9 



10 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

carried out. If forethought and intelligence 
are used in preparing for the elementary, yet 
well defined needs of the new born child, the 
simplest surroundings will provide him with 
all that is necessary for the perfect unfolding 
of that mysterious and wonderful gift of indi- 
vidual life, which he possesses even from the 
moment that he draws his first breath and sees 
light. 

The baby's first wants 

Immediately upon the arrival of the new 
baby he will want three things — a bath, 
clothes, a place to sleep. A basket should be 
prepared for his advent, in which are placed 
all the articles necessary for his first bath. 
This basket may be very simple, but there are 
certain things it must contain, and it should 
be near at hand and complete many days before 
there is any likelihood of its being used. He 
will need clothes — these also must be in wait- 
ing, for there will be little time to shop once 
he has taken up his autocratic abode in his 
new home. He must have his own place to 
sleep, for it is dangerous and unhealthy for 
him to share the bed of his mother, or of any 
older member of the family. His own bed is 
the baby's first right. 



PREPARATION 
The basket 



11 



The baby's basket should contain the fol- 
lowing articles: 

A large box of talcum powder. 
A large jar of white vaseline. 
A small flask of olive oil. 




The Baby's Basket 



A cake of pure castile soap. 
Safety pins — of three different sizes. 
A box of absorbent cotton. 
A bottle of boric acid solution, 10 grains 
to the ounce. 



12 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

One yard of white flannel for the baby's 
bands. 

A bath thermometer. 

A pair of sharp blunt-pointed scissors. 

A skein of heavy white silk. 

A soft baby hair brush. 

Large squares of soft old linen to serve as 
towels. 

Small squares of old linen for wash cloths. 

A square of soft old flannel to receive the 
new baby in. 

A bath blanket for the nurse's use. 

A complete set of the first clothes the baby 
is to wear, and a soft knit blanket in which to 
wrap him. 

These articles need very little explanation, 
and they will every one be used by whoever 
gives the baby his first bath. If it has been 
impossible to secure old linen, the best quality 
of cheese cloth neatly hemmed makes towels 
that are both soft and easily dried. The ab- 
sorbent cotton, instead of a sponge, soaked in 
boric acid solution, is used for the baby's eyes 
and mouth. The oil is to give his skin the 
thorough cleansing it requires at his first bath, 
and the flannel bands will be used until the 
dressings about the cord are removed. After 
that his woolen bands will be substituted. 



PREPARATION IS 

The baby's clothes 

8 (or 12) slips, or simple dresses. 

4 flannel night pettiocats. 

4 flannel day petticoats. 

4 flannel or soft nainsook nightgowns. 

4 silk and wool shirts — long sleeves and 
high neck, 2nd size. 

4 bands of the same quality, also 2nd size. 

6 pairs of knitted socks. 

4 dozen napkins. 

3 blankets, knitted (not crocheted). 

2 white flannel coats. 

2 white caps, very plain. 

2 hand-knit sacks. 

A few of these items may need a word of 
explanation. The slips, or simple dresses, must 
not be made too long, nor must the material 
be starched. They should be of a soft Eng- 
lish nainsook, and made with as little trimming 
as possible. No best dresses or white petti- 
coats are mentioned, for these are not among 
the essentials, and except on gala occasions few 
babies wear anything more elaborate than the 
slip and flannel petticoat during the first few 
months of their lives. The night and day 
petticoats may be of different grades of flannel, 
but they should both be made on little muslin 



14? THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

waists buttoned in the back, with large roomy 
armholes and drawing strings about the necks. 
In choosing the nightgowns the mother must 
be guided by climate and season. For winter, 
flannel or outing-flannel nightgowns are appro- 
priate, made very long and with a drawing 
string at the end, to inclose the baby's feet, in 
case he becomes uncovered during his sleep, 
and for summer they should be made of a 
light muslin or soft English nainsook, open at 
the end. 

In the matter of her baby's underwear the 
mother cannot afford to economize. What- 
ever else she may do without, the little shirts 
and bands must be of the right shape and 
texture. These will be one of the most ex- 
pensive items she will have to meet, but with 
careful washing, and if they are bought large 
in the first instance, they will last a long time. 
The best mixture is silk and wool, or if this 
is too expensive, cotton and wool. The cotton 
shirt, sold on so many bargain counters, and 
which by its apparent weight is most deceitful, 
is a source of danger to the child's health. 
It is dangerous because cotton holds the per- 
spiration for a long time, and thus acts as 
a cold poultice upon the child's most sensitive 
parts, his lungs, stomach and liver. Wool, on 



PREPARATION 15 

the other hand, permits instant evaporation of 
moisture and allows the surface of the skin 
to be kept warm and dry. Until the baby is 
three years old his shirts should have some 
wool in them, even in summer. 

Many trained nurses nowadays do not ad- 
vise socks for infants, and instead allow the 
feet to remain uncovered. This is an ex- 
periment rather unwise to make, for an in- 
fant's feet are far better incased in wool. 
Socks should be used, and it is necessary to 
have six pairs. They should be hand-knit if 
possible, for the machine woven garments wear 
very badly and are not well shaped. This 
also may be said of the sacks and blankets. 
Nowhere does handwork for the baby show to 
a better advantage than in these necessary 
knitted garments. Nothing bought ready 
made can ever take their place. 

It may sound extravagant in some ears to 
say that the baby requires 4 dozen napkins. 
But a few weeks of experience in the daily 
needs of her child will soon show the young 
mother that she has bought none too many. 
One of the first rules she must set for herself 
is that of attending to his wants instantly, 
no matter what other duties she may have on 
hand. He must be changed as often in the 



16 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

day or night as he requires it, and the soiled 
napkins must not, until they are washed, be 
used again. They must be placed in a cov- 
ered receptacle at once, and washed as soon as 
possible. There is nothing worse for a child 
than to be left in wet bandages — for not only 
are they cold and uncomfortable, but they are 
also irritating to his skin, causing the most 
painful excoriations upon his tender little body. 
Old nurses will tell you that a child never takes 
cold " in his own wet " — this has, in too many 
unfortunate instances, been proved only a su- 
perstition. Carelessness about changing an 
infant is a frequent cause of colic, restlessness 
at night, and digestive disturbances. The nap- 
kins may be of squares of old linen, of cotton 
bird's eye, or of a cheap cotton flannel. They 
should be of two sizes — the first 2 dozen 18 
inches and the remainder 28 or 30 inches 
square. The cotton bird's eye napkins come 
already hemmed and done up in sanitary pack- 
ages prepared for instant use. 

The coats for the new baby should be of a 
flannel that will wash, plainly made, and un- 
lined. If the climate warrants it, a little sep- 
arate quilted lining of lamb's wool may be 
added — this garment is indispensable in cold 
weather, for it can be worn under all his coats, 



PREPARATION 17 

thus enabling the coats themselves to be of a 
material that will be presentable after many 
washings. 

His caps should be warm and soft, without 
ribbon bows which press against his cheek 
or ear; they should have narrow strings that 
will tie easily and not destroy the pleasure of 
his first outings. In choosing the baby's 
clothes remember the value of good material 
and absolute simplicity — a combination which 
never fails to give the best results. 

The baby's bed 

Although the one time prejudice against the 
cradle has been somewhat removed of late, it 
is best to choose for the baby a bed that does 
not rock. A small white enamel crib is both 
convenient and practical, for the baby will not 
outgrow it with the rapidity with which he 
is sure to leave his cradle. If an iron or brass 
crib is chosen, a piece of quilting should be 
made to surround its bars. This protects the 
child's body from draughts, and when he be- 
gins to investigate his surroundings, also pro- 
tects him from many cruel knocks upon his 
little head. 

The mattress for the crib should be either 
of cotton or of hair. Hair is more expensive 



18 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

and wears better than cotton, but is not quite 
so soft at first. If the mattress seems hard 
to the touch when it is new, a small quilt of 
several folds of cotton laid between unbleached 
muslin can be easily made and used until the 
baby grows vigorous enough to profit by a hard 
bed. Little muslin sheets are needed, bought 
to fit the crib, and a pair of blankets as well. 
The blankets should be always covered with a 
plain English dimity spread ; if protected in this 
way they will remain clean for many months. 

To make the bed 

In making the baby's bed see that a square 
of rubber is laid first upon the mattress to 
protect it and keep it dry. Upon the first 
sheet, pin a quilted cotton pad directly in the 
center of the bed, and lay the baby always 
upon it. Several pads should be in daily use 
in the nursery, for besides being easy to 
wash, they save the sheets and the mattress 
and keep the bed always sweet and clean. 
These pads may be bought ready made at any 
of the department stores. They should be the 
width of the crib and ^4 of a yard long. If 
any pillow is used it should be a hair pillow, 
as thin as it can be made. Down is heating 
to the head, and is best eliminated, unless used 



PREPARATION 



19 



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^ H '^\^/*V 



^Wr^Wl 






>S?-^*£j«*u 







20 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

for warmth when the child is out in his coach. 
Many nurses now advocate no pillow for the 
infant, arguing that he sleeps better and has 
a more beautifully formed body when trained 
from infancy to sleep upon the mattress alone. 
A small hair pillow, however, does no harm to 
the child, and certainly looks more comfort- 
able to the mother's apprehensive eye! The 
upper sheet should not be used until the child 
is several months old. Warmth, the urgent 
need of the infant, is more readily acquired 
when he is carefully covered by the blanket 
alone. A crib, furnished in the manner just 
described, will do without change for the child 
until he is five or six years old, and is the best 
investment a mother can make. The tiny 
baskets and cradles which are so alluring at 
first sight, are very costly and soon outgrown. 
They may decidedly be placed among the non- 
essentials. 

Value of precision 

As soon as the young mother assumes full 
charge of her baby, she meets one great diffi-* 
culty. If she is to succeed in her manage- 
ment of his life, she must guide it with abso- 
lute precision. This is too often where she 
stumbles. Lack of precision in the mother 



PREPARATION 21 

is responsible for most of the failures we see — 
sad failures where the baby has suffered mor- 
ally and physically, and where the mother has 
grown so nervous and irritable, that neither 
achieves the goal of normal growth and health- 
ful development. It requires brain and in- 
telligence to be a good mother — with a good 
mother a child can do without many things 
and never know that he has missed them. 
Without a good mother the finest character 
will suffer. It is in the power of every woman, 
no matter how weary or preoccupied she may 
be, to learn how to be a good mother. If she 
has not received such knowledge as a blessed 
legacy from her own mother, she may acquire 
it. 

The value of habit 

On the first day that she is left alone with 
her baby, the mother must realize that she 
can do nothing unless she accepts into her 
life the law of habit. She must do what 
has to be done for her child regularly. She 
must not vary so much as a minute the 
hours of his feeding, his bath, his nap. Only 
by taking this great ally into her home is 
it possible for her to solve the problems she 
must meet in her daily life. She must have 



22 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

regularity or she will surely fail. This is for 
two reasons. Because the child is a creature 
of habit, willing to be taught, quick to master 
his little routine; and because by this easy 
method she instills in infancy the first germs 
of the wonderful power of self-control. Self- 
control can be taught in infancy and be used by 
a child. Without it there are sure to come all 
the various miseries that follow lawless and 
capricious government. 

To this rule of habit the mother also must 
bend. There must be a place for everything. 
The child must be surrounded by cleanliness 
and order. For mental as well as for physical 
reasons it is important that an atmosphere of 
security and quiet surround the child. In in- 
fancy he is almost plant-like, and he must be 
allowed to unfold in perfect quiet, without any 
agitation or nervous excitement. 

The natural desire of the young mother is 
to " show off " her new acquisition ; this very 
showing off has ruined many babies, for the 
mind and body of a new-born child are too 
delicate to endure the slightest strain. If they 
are called upon to bear this strain, the result 
is that the child soon becomes nervous, irri- 
table and often ill. The brain grows as much 
during the first year as during all the rest of 



PREPARATION 23 

life, which is the reason for emphasizing this 
need of quiet and protection. A child showing 
any marked nervousness should see very few 
people, and live the most retired kind of life. 

A few questions that may trouble the young 

mother 

(i) How often should a child be weighed, 
and how much should he gain in each interval ? 

The new-born child should be weighed every 
week for the first six months of his life, and 
every two weeks for the remainder of the 
first year. During the child's second year it 
is wise to weigh him about every two months. 
It well repays the mother to keep a record of 
this kind, for a steady gain in weight is one 
of the surest proofs that the child is thriving, 
and if a sudden unaccountable loss occurs, she 
is aware of the fact at once, and a physician 
may be consulted without losing any time. 

After the first week, when there is usually 
a slight loss, the normal child should gain from 
four to eight ounces a week to the sixth 
month. After that the gain is less — usually 
from two to four ounces a week. Although 
it is somewhat alarming when a child does not 
gain regularly, it is not necessarily a serious 
sign. It is always better for the mother to 



24 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

know, however, for if the child's weight con- 
tinues stationary, or if he begins to lose, she 
should take the matter at once to her physician. 
There is no more reassuring sign that a child 
is doing well than the steady increase of 
weight. This can only be determined to the 
full satisfaction of both mother and doctor 
by regular trials with good scales at certain 
given intervals. 

(2) What is the proper temperature of the 
baby's room? 

Whenever it is possible, the baby should not 
sleep in the same room in which his days are 
spent. If he must do so, the room should be 
aired for a full hour before bed time, and again 
in the early morning. The temperature dur- 
ing the day should be kept as regular as pos- 
sible. 

Overheating is far more dangerous to the 
child than living in a cold atmosphere. The 
safest way is to keep a reliable thermometer 
on hand, and see that the temperature of the 
room is kept strictly regulated by it. It should 
never be allowed to go above 70 ; 64 ° to 68° 
F. is the proper degree of heat. 

(3) How soon may the new-born child be 
taken out of doors? 



PREPARATION 25 

In the summer it is safe to give the baby his 
first airing after he is one week old. In the 
spring or fall in one month. If it is winter 
when the child is born, he may begin to take 
the air for a few minutes fully dressed in a 
room when he is a month old, but he must 
not go out in the extreme cold until he is 
three months old, unless by the order of his 
physician. 

(4) What is the best time of day for the 
baby to go out? 

In winter, or in cool weather, between 11 
and 3 are the hours when it is safest for him 
to take his airing. In summer almost any 
time, provided it is not after sunset. 

(5) How shall the mother know when it 
is unwise to send her baby out ? 

First by consulting the thermometer. If it 
is below 70 F. a child under 8 weeks should 
not go out. High winds, melting snow, or 
any marked indisposition in the child, are all 
reasons for keeping him indoors. 

(6) How much is it normal and reasonable 
for an infant to cry? 

Dr. Holt, in a valuable book on the care 
of children, states that for a baby to cry from 



26 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

l 5 t° 30 minutes daily is not too much. The 
mother need not be alarmed if her baby cries 
lustily several times a day. But her ear must 
grow acute to the different inflections in his 
cry, and she must try to trace them to their 
source, and learn when the cry is normal — 
one might almost say useful — and when it is 
the direct result of pain, discomfort, and dis- 
tress. 

The cry of the healthy infant is strong, loud 
and vigorous. It is a valuable exercise to him, 
for by its means his lungs are expanded and 
helped to grow. It would be an alarming sign 
in a baby should he never cry. 

(7) How is the mother to tell if the cry 
is the result of pain? 

The cry that results from pain, although it 
may be sharp and loud at first, is seldom 
strong. It is more often a moan, and if the 
pain is serious, it soon becomes a weak, con- 
tinuous, pitiful lamentation. When this cry 
is once heard by the mother, she will never 
again confound it with the lusty cry of a robust 
sturdy child who is temporarily angry or dis- 
turbed. 

(8) Should the child be taken up when he 
cries? 



PREPARATION 27 

The mother should investigate the cause of 
the cry, and if he is not hungry, nor in need 
of attention, nor uncomfortably placed in his 
crib, she should not take him up. If she weak- 
ens, and lifts him in her arms when there is 
no reason for doing so, he will soon form the 
habit of attracting her attention many times 
daily in the same imperious way. Above all 
else, she must never feed him when he cries if 
it is between hours, even if his last meal has 
not been entirely consumed. If he seems to 
be hungry, a greater amount must be given 
at the next feeding, which, in cases of emer- 
gency, may be advanced fifteen minutes or so. 

An old family physician once said to a young 
mother, " Never take the baby up, and never 
give him anything when he cries. Distract his 
attention and wait for a moment or so until 
his crying ceases; so that the granting of his 
desire, or the taking of him out of his crib, 
may not become connected in his mind with 
his cry/' This is a wise suggestion, and good 
for the mother to follow. It is a little thing, 
but brings helpful results. 

(9) What should the temperature of the 
bath be? 

In the first few weeks of the baby's life, the 



28 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

temperature of his bath should be ioo° F. 
Later, until he is six months old, 98 F. Dur- 
ing his first year 95 °, and during his second 
year from 85 ° to 90 . 

(10) What is the best hour to bathe the 
baby? 

In planning the regimen of the new baby, 
it is best to arrange to give him his daily bath 
about 9.30 or 10 o'clock — or just before the 
long morning sleep he should be trained to 
take from early infancy. The hour will have 
to be fixed to come between, or just before, the 
hours of his feedings. At bed time, the aver- 
age baby is cross and tired, and it is not the 
best time to bathe him; for the crying spell, 
or failure to react promptly which might occur 
if he was physically exhausted, would inter- 
fere with his sleep and break up his whole 
night's rest. A quick sponging off is best at 
this hour, and the tub bath with all its minutiae 
is endured by him more heroically when he is 
fresh and well rested, in the early morning. 
He need not be dressed at all in the morning 
until after his bath. This reduces the number 
of his wearisome handlings — hard indeed for 
him to bear with good temper, for he has a 
natural aversion to soap, water and clothes ! 



PREPARATION 29 

(n) How should the child be held while 
he is being dressed? 

Nothing but experience can teach the young 
mother how to be really expert in dressing and 
undressing her baby. There are a few rules, 
however, to help her gain this experience 
quickly. Never attempt to dress an infant in 
a sitting posture. He must lie out upon your 
lap and you must slip the clothes up over his 
feet — never pull them over his head. The 
clothes may be previously arranged one gar- 
ment within the other, to make this easier. 
Turn him as seldom as possible, twice is really 
quite enough, and handle his arms with the 
greatest care, never forcing them or bending 
them back Have the armholes of his gar- 
ments very large and his flannels roomy to 
make his dressing easier. 

(12) What is the proper way to care for 
the baby's napkins? 

Nothing shows the incompetent mother more 
effectively than does carelessness in the great 
matter of providing for the details of her baby's 
toilette. There are some nurseries in which 
napkins are drying at all hours of the day and 
night ; some bath tubs in which you are sure to 
see the wash for the baby always in process of 



30 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

being done. The proper way to care for the 
soiled napkins, is to have a covered galvanized 
bucket near at hand (not in the nursery) into 
which they may be placed as soon as they are 
removed. Here they may soak in plain water 
until a convenient time comes to wash them out. 
They must be boiled for at least ten minutes, 
and washed in hot suds. They need not be 
ironed, but must be shaken out and aired for 
fully 12 hours before being used again, as noth- 
ing is more dangerous to a child than a damp 
napkin. No blue, starch or strong soap must 
be used. A poor soap imperfectly rinsed out 
of the napkins often causes extreme irritation 
to the tender skin of an infant. 

(13) How much air is it safe to have in 
the nursery? 

The nursery must be well ventilated. All 
physicians agree as to the importance of this, 
and it is always safe to have air in the nur- 
sery if draught is guarded against. But how 
do this if the room is small, and the baby 
constantly in it? One good way is to insert 
a board at the lower sash — this gives a space 
for ventilation between the upper and the lower 
sash, and cannot possibly make a draught. At 
night the window ought always to be open, but 



PREPARATION 31 

a screen should be placed around it to pre- 
clude any possibility of the cold air reaching 
the baby while he sleeps. An open fire place 
is one of the best ventilators, and it is ideal 
when the baby's sleeping room happens to be 
provided with one. 

(14) How much should the child sleep, and 
should he sleep out of doors? 

For some time after birth the normal infant 
spends most of his time in sleep. Fully 18 
hours of the 24 are spent by the healthy baby 
in profound sleep. Any marked diminution 
in the hours of sleep points to disease — the 
long peaceful sleep of the well child is one of 
the strongest proofs of his health. The mother 
need never grow anxious about her child's 
lengthy slumbers if he is otherwise in good 
condition. 

The child's nap may be taken out of doors, 
in a sheltered place, when the weather is mild. 
In winter it should only be done at the sug- 
gestion of the physician, as it is not always 
advisable, though if the proper precautions are 
taken it may be of great benefit, particularly to 
a weak child. 

The coach or crib should be covered with net- 
ting in summer as a protection against insects. 



32 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

The eyes of the new born 

Many infants lose their sight soon after they 
are born, because of disease which has been 
transmitted to them from their mother during 
the process of birth, or from other outside 
causes. Some physicians advise placing in 
each of the new-born baby's eyes a single drop 
of a one-per-cent solution of Nitrate of Sil- 
ver. The physician always attends to this 
important matter himself. Should no phy- 
sician be present, it is a safe precaution to 
make one application of the Nitrate of Silver 
directly after birth. This must never be done, 
however, by a careless or inexperienced per- 
son. 

Vaccination 

It is the imperative duty of parents to see 
that their baby is vaccinated. This should 
be done as soon as the child begins to gain 
regularly in weight — in the first six or eight 
weeks of his life. If the first attempt is unsuc- 
cessful, at least three other trials should be 
made; and if they all fail, he should be vac- 
cinated again at the end of a year. It is 
usually found more convenient to vaccinate 
a child upon the leg, unless he is walking, in 
which case it is sometimes hard to keep him 



PREPARATION 33 

quiet during the worst stages of the sore. The 
arm, near the shoulder, may be substituted if 
thought best by the physician or the mother. 
If there is an epidemic of small-pox every one 
in the household should be vaccinated at once. 
If no small-pox " scare " occurs, a vaccination 
in infancy, another at twelve, and one more at 
twenty is all the protection required. 

The only treatment necessary when the vac- 
cine " takes/' is cleanliness and protection. 
The clothes must not rub against the sore, 
which it is best to cover with a vaccine shield. 
As soon as the sore begins to discharge, it 
should be dusted with boric acid several times 
daily. It must be protected until entirely 
healed, or it may cause a great deal of trouble. 
The only danger in vaccination (a danger much 
exaggerated by ignorant people) occurs when 
the sore becomes infected through carelessness 
and dirt. When the sore is properly and intel- 
ligently cared for, it is practically safe to say 
that there is no danger in vaccination. Every 
mother should realize that a successful vaccina- 
tion in her child precludes him from the pos- 
sibility of taking the dreadful and often fatal 
disease of small-pox. He may even be in bed 
with a small-pox patient and not become in- 
fected. 



CHAPTER II 

THE VALUE OF HEALTH 

There is one priceless blessing that the 
mother usually has in her own hands to bestow 
upon her child. It is the blessing of health. 
When the child is not born handicapped by a 
weak constitution, he has little to fear from the 
ailments that beset his infancy, unless his nat- 
ural defenses are weakened by the foolishness 
or the ignorance of his mother. This is par- 
ticularly so, if she is willing and able to nurse 
him. Physicians agree that for a mother to 
nurse her baby is the surest way for her to 
gain his permanent health. 

The baby's food 

There is no food, however carefully pre- 
pared, that can take the place of that ordained 
by nature for the new-born child. Unless 
ordered to do so by a competent physician, 
nothing should influence the mother to wean 
her baby until he is at least eight months old. 
In many cases it is advisable to continue the 

34 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH 35 

nursing for one year or even for fourteen 
months. 

Importance of nursing the child 

Why is so much stress laid upon the import- 
ance of nursing? 

Because investigation of the high rate of 
infant mortality shows that the largest per- 
centage of deaths occur among bottle-fed 
babies. A certain resisting power is always 
found in breast-fed children. This strength — 
this mysterious resisting power, is one of the 
child's most valuable assets, and follows him 
all through the years of his early life. In 
the heat of summer, and in serious illnesses, 
many babies owe their lives to the fact that 
they are nursed by their mothers. An ill child 
who is thus sustained can live for months, 
through hardships that would end in death were 
the added tax of artificial food to be laid upon 
his system. 

The formation of adenoids and other ob- 
structions of the throat and nose are much in- 
creased by bottle-feeding. Enlarged tonsils 
are also more likely to be found among bottle- 
fed babies. This is explained by the fact that 
the manner in which an infant sucks from a 
bottle is entirely different from the way in 



36 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

which nature ordains that he shall obtain his 
food. In other words different muscles are 
employed, and bottle-feeding is difficult and 
exhausting to the throat of the new-born child. 

In the majority of cases, with the advice 
and aid of the physician, it is possible for the 
mother to nurse her baby entirely for the first 
few months of his life, and even for the entire 
time without any artificial food whatever. If 
she is able to do this it is of the greatest 
advantage to her child. By it he is practically 
insured a happy, peaceful infancy, and, should 
illness overtake him, the greatest amelioration 
possible for his distress. The woman who can 
nurse her child and will not do so is no true 
mother. 

The daily regimen of the child should be 
carefully planned by the mother, if possible 
under the supervision of her physician. When 
once planned to her own contentment and the 
baby's comfort, it should be written out clearly 
and pinned upon the nursery w r all, to be ad- 
hered to with the strictest regularity, until 
found in some way wanting or unsatisfactory. 
Here is the daily regimen for the average child 
at three different stages of his infancy, for 
the benefit of those mothers who have not a 
physician at hand to consult 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH 37 

First to sixth week 

First feeding at 5 a. m. 

Second feeding at 7. 

Bath at 8.30. 

Third feeding at 9. 

Sleep. 

Fourth feeding at 11. 

Out at 12. 

Fifth feeding at 1. 

Out at 2.30. 

Sixth feeding at 3. 

Seventh feeding at 5. 

Prepared for bed at 6.30. 

Eighth feeding at 7. 

Ninth feeding at 9. 

Between 9 p. m. and 5 in the morning, two 
nursings only are permitted, and they should 
be arranged so as not to be nearer together 
than two hours. 

In bad weather the infant should sleep dur- 
ing the hours set aside for his outing. As he 
grows older he may take exercise in the house, 
on such days as are unsuitable for him to be 
taken out by playing on a spread upon the floor 
or bed. It should be remembered that a child 
of two months is often strong enough to move 
about and perhaps fall off a bed. 



88 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Six weeks to four months 

First feeding at 7 or when he first awakens. 
Bath at 9. 

Second feeding at 9.30. 
Sleep till 12. 
Third feeding at 12. 
Out till 2.30. 
Fourth feeding at 2.30. 
Out at 3. 

Fifth feeding at 5. 
Prepared for bed at 7. 
Sixth feeding at 7.30. 
Sleep. 

Seventh feeding at 10. One night nursing 
is permitted between 10 and 7. 

Fourth to twelfth month 

First feeding at 7, or when he first awakens. 

Bath at 9.30. 

Second feeding at 10. 

Sleep till 1. 

Third feeding at 1. 

Out till 3.30. 

Fourth feeding at 4. 

Prepared for bed at 6.30. 

Fifth feeding at 7. 

Sleep. 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH 39 

Sixth feeding at 10. No night nursing is 
permitted after the baby is four months old. 

After the first four months of his life the 
baby should not be fed at all between 10 at 
night and 7 in the morning. This allows the 
mother nine hours of sleep, which she needs, if 
only in order to have a supply of milk for 
her child during the remaining fifteen hours. 
In some cases, however, physicians order that 
the night feeding shall be given up, thus train- 
ing him as early as his second month to go 
from 10 until 6 without nourishment. Dr. 
Starr advises this plan, and it seems wisest, 
though not always practicable, to train the 
child from the very beginning not to expect 
any regular feeding at night. For even if so 
indulged during infancy, he must soon be 
broken of the habit, as food after 10 or 
10.30 should never be given to a child over 
four months of age. 

A baby's cry 

It is one of the most difficult things to con- 
vince the young mother that when her baby 
wakes up at night and cries, or cries in fact 
at any hour, the cry is not necessarily a 
" hungry cry." Indeed it is seldom a hungry 



40 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

cry, for the majority of babies cry from over- 
feeding rather than from hunger. To feed 
the child out of hours, or whenever he cries, 
is one of the greatest mistakes a mother can 
make. A drink of cool water may be given 
twice a day — indeed must be given — and is 
most necessary as well as soothing. A little 
hot water from a small bottle is often of the 
greatest comfort to the child, and may be 
offered several times a day, for the water stim- 
ulates the action of the kidneys, and cannot 
possibly do the child the slightest harm. The 
desire to suck, in an infant, is not by any means 
always indicative of hunger. It shows restless- 1 
ness or a little pain, and is usually instantly 
quieted by a drink of warm water. 

Plan versus caprice 

It is well to have a plan in the bringing up 
of the child — a system, an ideal. Rocks and 
shoals surround capricious government. The 
child should be brought up according to a well 
defined and reasonable plan of government, 
thought out by the mother in her quiet mo- 
ments, and adhered to even at great personal 
inconvenience, for intelligent system is the sc 
cret of growth. Regularity of life, the sense 
that he is under wise control, and not a toy 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH 41 

or plaything, soon bring results in the life of 
the child, and he responds to his daily routine 
by happy obedience and lusty growth. 

The child's daily regimen should be planned 
with one great end in view — the end of help- 
ing him to acquire perfect health. Health is 
the most desirable of all qualities, for it affects 
his temper, his face, his power as a child and 
his usefulness as a grown man. To fit him 
to meet life by providing him with a robust 
physique should be the underlying thought in 
all the mother's efforts. How is this health to 
be obtained? Principally through unfailing 
obedience to rule. 

There are three great avenues by which 
harm is most likely to reach the growing child. 
These avenues are his nervous system, his 
stomach and his intelligence. To effectually 
close each one of them against harmful influ- 
ence should be the mother's aim, while trying 
to plan for her child a daily regimen of life. 
To keep him from disease until he has gained 
a strong and perfect body necessitates loving 
watch at every possible portal of harm — if 
the mother is successful in this, her baby will 
unfold as naturally as a little plant, in careless 
health and normal glowing beauty. To do this 
requires no small amount of intelligence. She 



42 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

must watch herself as carefully as she watches 
others — for harm comes often to him through 
herself, and even through her very love. 

Rest and quiet 

The average mother, despite her earnest care, 
sins many times against her child — and 
particularly against his delicate and easily 
overwrought nervous system. The mother, 
often nervous herself, has little patience at her 
disposal. Her own temperament is hasty and 
frequently uncontrolled. She very soon aggra- 
vates the same budding tendencies in her baby. 
Controversies and high voiced scoldings fol- 
low. Yet there are many ways in which the 
child's nervous system can be protected by the 
mother if she will but study them. First of all, 
the child from babyhood should be corrected, 
not scolded. He should have a quiet place in 
the house that is his own, and his sleep should 
be regular and undisturbed. He should never 
be taken out after dark, nor on shopping tours. 
This requires self-denial on the mother's part, 
but self-denial is necessary in more ways than 
one, if the child's life is to be protected. Over- 
excitement prepares the way most effectually 
for disease, by breaking down in the child the 
normal resisting powers with which nature en- 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH 43 

dows him at birth. Therefore it is particularly 
necessary to guard against all forms of over- 
excitement. 

Regular rest, then, in a quiet room, is the 
first protection against nervousness, and the 
baby must receive it at his mother's hands. 
His nervous system is also affected by too 
much light and by loud voices. These also, 
are, in a great measure, under her control. 
With many hours of sleep daily, taken in a 
quiet, well ventilated, carefully shaded room, 
the baby should develop, ignorant that he has 
" nerves," and grow up strong and controlled 
in that sensitive delicate portion of his phy- 
sique, that mysterious force, upon which both 
his body and his brain must depend for 
growth. 

The child's most vulnerable point is his 
stomach. This is well known by kindly dis- 
posed friends, and through it they try to reach 
his heart and will. Even his mother uses it 
occasionally as he grows older, when despera- 
tion drives her to offer sugar bribes. To con- 
trol herself, and at the same time to keep away 
those friends who are always near at hand to 
make her efforts well nigh impossible, is no 
easy task, yet for the sake of her child she 
must undertake both. 



44 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Regularity and cleanliness 

The mother owes it to her child to give him 
the best start in life that she is capable of. 
Therefore she should not run the risk of trying 
experiments with his digestion. Regularity 
and cleanliness in all that has to do with his 
food — insist upon these and he will soon 
develop a strong digestion and a healthy con- 
stitution. But to gain these he must be for- 
bidden dainties away from home, food out of 
hours, and any encroachment upon his daily 
routine until his health is well established. 
Babies who have intestinal pains and irregu- 
larities, and who are sickly, have usually be- 
come so by a careless home regime, unclean 
bottles, and improper food. In the matter of 
diet, system and cleanliness are of vital im- 
portance to the infant. Overfeeding causes 
many ills, while improper cleansing of the bot- 
tles and of the utensils in daily use brings 
disease and even death. 

Self-control and discipline 

The child's intelligence is the third great 
avenue always open to carry harm and disease 
to the inner fortress of his being. Mental dis- 
ease can visit the child very early in his life. 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH 45 

His natural guardian is his mother. She it is 
who must stand watch over his awakening fac- 
ulties, and hold herself responsible for what 
he grasps of life. To protect the child's dawn- 
ing intelligence he must be taught to obey. 
Obedience is the great safeguard of youth. 
Discipline is the first master to appear over 
the horizon of his baby life. When he has 
learned to obey, to marshal his little army of 
new-born forces and impulses, he has taken 
his first mental step bravely into life, and has 
begun his fight with the great world of intel- 
ligence and effort outside of himself. 

Self-control and discipline can be taught in 
the nursery, and the wise mother tenderly 
stoops to train her baby child in the elementary 
lessons of self-knowledge and obedience; for 
without them his intelligence will grow wild, 
and become only a source of harm, where it 
should be the strong citadel of all his forces, 
and his defense against the world. 

The greatest gift, then, that a mother can 
bestow upon her child is the gift of health. 
This gift of health provides him with a strong 
arm of defense against the various spiritual 
and material enemies of infancy. To gain it 
for him the mother must stand guard over 
all the awakening faculties of his life. She 



46 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

must surround him with quiet, bless him with 
understanding, and give him honest and intel- 
ligent care. " For the mother is and must be, 
whether she knows it or not, the greatest, 
strongest, and most lasting teacher her chil- 
dren have. Other influences come and go, but 
hers is continual." What she does for her 
child in infancy will follow him throughout his 
existence and the four walls of the nursery 
guard and shield the potentialities of his later 
life. 



CHAPTER III 

THE BATH 

For the first few weeks of his life, the new 
born child is usually bathed by a nurse, or by 
some experienced friend or relative. But the 
time comes sooner or later when the young 
mother must take entire charge, and as the 
bath is of regular occurrence, and one of the 
most important items of the daily regimen, she 
must learn to give it quickly, carefully, thor- 
oughly and with as little exposure to the child 
as possible. It is best for the mother to teach 
herself one way — and only one — of bathing 
the baby, so that by accustoming herself to 
routine and regularity none of the little things 
which constitute its importance may be for- 
gotten. Practice is the only thing that makes 
perfect in the handling of an infant. To be- 
come expert it is necessary to do the same thing 
in the same way many times. 

It depends largely upon the convenience of 
the mother whether the baby is bathed in a 
small tub in his bed-room, or whether the 

47 



48 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

bath be given in the bath-room, in the large 
family tub. It is, however, preferable to bathe 
the infant in a small tin or rubber tub, if pos- 
sible before an open fire, and in a room well 
heated and thoroughly protected from draught. 
To be rendered more convenient, the tub may 
be placed upon a low table (an ordinary kitchen 
table with the legs cut off to bring it within 




A Low Table for the Bath 



8 inches of the floor does very well) and upon 
this table, beside the tub, must be placed the 
following articles : y 

A bath thermometer, a cake of pure castile 
soap, a small linen wash cloth, a cup with boric 
acid solution in it, a box of absorbent cotton, 
an orange wood stick, a box of talcum powder, 
a tube of white vaseline, a soft linen towel, 
and a soft bath towel. On a chair at the 
mother's side should be spread conveniently at 



THE BATH 49 

hand an entire set of clean clothes for the baby 
to be dressed in when his bath is over. 

How to give the bath 

The first thing to do when you are prepar- 
ing to bathe the baby is to be sure that nothing 
is forgotten. It is almost impossible to leave 
the child at any stage of the proceedings, and 
so before you take him up, give an additional 
glance at your preparations, to be sure that 
nothing has been overlooked. Then tie on 
your flannel bath apron. This apron should 
consist of two lengths of flannel, so that when 
the baby is dry, you can turn back the wet 
layer of flannel and still have a dry apron 
with which to enfold his little body. Then 
draw the bath. Test it with your thermom- 
eter to be sure that it has the required degree 
of heat: 98 F. to ioo° F. is right for early 
infancy. Now you may lift the baby from his 
crib and sit down with him in your arms on 
a low chair before the bath. In undressing 
the baby remember to handle him as little as 
possible. It tires him and makes him cross 
to turn him from one side to the other. You 
will soon grow so expert that it requires but 
one turning to accomplish the whole difficult 
task of removing all his garments. 



50 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 




The Double Bath Apron. 



THE BATH 51 

The quickest way to undress the baby is to 
lay him on his stomach across your knees 
while you unbutton and unfasten all his 
clothes. 

Then turn the baby over upon his back, 
slip out each arm, and pull all the garments 
down over his legs. Shirt, band, socks and 
napkins can all be removed without turning 
him again. 

As soon as the baby is undressed wrap the 
top of your apron around his body and pre- 
pare to wash his face. This must be done 
with a piece of absorbent cotton in perfectly 
clean water. His face may then be gently 
wiped with the old linen towel, and need not 
be touched again. 

The next thing to do is to soap his little 
body all over with the wash cloth, aided by the 
friction of your hand. Uncover only a por- 
tion of his body at a time, and never allow 
him to get chilled. Be particularly careful to 
reach all the little folds and crevices with the 
soap, remembering how easily he will rub 
and chafe, and how necessary to his comfort 
is this daily cleansing of his entire body. 
After he is thoroughly soaped he may be 
gently placed in the tub of water, which has 
been tested by the thermometer. 



52 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

The child in the water 

While placing the child in the water always 
speak reassuringly to him. Attract his atten- 
tion and hold him very firmly, and lower him 
slowly and carefully into the water. Some 
children are greatly agitated when they first 
feel the water about them. The mother's 
voice and calmness will soon overcome this 
fear. 

In holding the child in the water let the 
baby's head rest on your left arm. Place your 
thumb upon his shoulder and your fingers un- 
der his arm. This is a firm grasp, and the 
baby cannot possibly roll off your arm, nor 
get water in his mouth. Your right hand will 
be entirely free to use the absorbent cotton 
sponge. All that is necessary now, is to gently 
sponge off the soap, and allow the baby to 
exercise his limbs by kicking or by moving 
them about in the warm water. The baby 
should remain thus enjoying his bath from 
three to five minutes. After this the drying 
and dressing should begin, and it must be 
accomplished as quickly as possible. 

Dry the child carefully with the linen towel, 
or soft bath towel, and then powder him — 
rubbing his back until he is all aglow. When 



THE BATH 53 

ready for his garments (which have been 
toasting before the fire or near the heater), 
the wet bath blanket must be rolled back. 
You will find that the flannel underneath is 
perfectly dry, which saves an awkward mo- 
ment, for it is difficult — almost impossible — 
to remove the bath apron until the child is 
entirely dressed unless there is someone near 
by to untie knots and otherwise lend a helping 
hand. 

While he is on his back slip on his band 
and shirt. Next his warm and powdered nap- 
kin must be pinned in place. Then his flannel 
petticoat and his slip, which have been pre- 
viously arranged together, must be drawn 
quickly on over his feet. Once more he must 
be turned and the garments buttoned. He 
should be securely wrapped in a warm afghan 
and gently soothed for a while upon your lap 
before his eyes, nose and mouth are attended 
to. If the baby is restless or forms the habit 
of crying during his bath, these important 
items should be undertaken before he is un- 
dressed, for they must not be slighted or neg- 
lected. Hygienically, it is best that they 
should be done last — after the washing and 
cleansing of his body is accomplished, but this 
is often found to be impracticable. 



54 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

The eye 

Every day the baby's eyes should be washed 
with a lukewarm solution of boric acid. This 
is done by pouring out a little of the solution 
in a clean cup, and after soaking small pieces 
of absorbent cotton, dropping the solution from 
them into the corners of the child's eyes and 
thoroughly swabing them. Different cotton 
should be used for each eye. It is very im- 
portant to care for the child's eyes in this 
way, as almost all babies show a tendency 
to develop an inflamed condition of the eyes 
at some time during early infancy. By a sys- 
tematic treatment of this kind the danger may 
be averted. 

If the eyes discharge at all, they should be 
cleansed every hour. The same boric acid 
solution of ten grains to one ounce is the best 
thing to use. In a light attack, if this simple 
remedy is employed, the discharge will soon 
cease. If, however, after conscientiously ap- 
plying the treatment for a day or so, it should 
not cease, a physician must be consulted at 
once. The eyesight of many infants is lost 
by delay in just such a simple matter as this. 
But a slight discharge often occurs, and is not 
necessarily at all a serious sign. It should, 



THE BATH 55 

however, be brought under control at once, 
and never allowed to continue an hour with- 
out treatment. 

If the child's eyelids show a tendency to 
stick together, a little white vaseline from a 
tube may be rubbed upon them at night. This 
treatment is very good for the eyelashes, and 
can do no harm whatever to the eyes if care- 
fully applied. 

The mouth 

The child's mouth must also receive great 
care, for without a thorough daily cleansing — 
and often even with it — the baby is apt to 
suffer from little ulcers or sore places upon 
his gums. It is not necessary to wash the 
baby's mouth after every feeding, but it should 
be done twice a day always, once in the morn- 
ing, at his bath, and again in the evening when 
he is being prepared for bed. 

To cleanse the baby's mouth, wrap a piece 
of absorbent cotton firmly around your first 
finger. Then dip your finger into a cup which 
has been partially filled with the boric acid 
solution. Then very carefully go over every 
part of the child's mouth. The gums, tongue, 
under the tongue, all folds and inner crevices, 
must be thoroughly treated. In doing this, 



56 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

the greatest care must be taken not to injure 
the delicate mucous membrane that lines the 
interior portions of the mouth. The gentlest 
and most sensitive touch is what is needed. 
This treatment is sufficient to keep a well baby's 
mouth perfectly sweet and clean. If there is 
any sign of ulceration or disease, a physician 
must be consulted at once. 

The ear 

It is always difficult to care for the tender 
and delicate ears of a child — particularly so 
while he is still in the first stages of infancy. 
Yet there are a few simple rules, which, if 
observed here, may be found helpful. 

Remember that the ear should never be 
touched by anything harder than a folded 
piece of linen. The careful manipulation of a 
bit of absorbent cotton in his bath is usually 
quite sufficient to keep the ears clean. Never 
" poke " the child's ear with anything. Per- 
manent destruction of the ear-drum may re- 
sult. In bathing the child, see that his ears 
do not become filled with water, for this may 
cause him hours of subsequent distress. The 
ear is extremely tender, and even the human 
finger is too large to be used in its cleansing. 
When the child is in his bath, take the cotton 



THE BATH 57 

sponge, put a little soap and water on it, wring 
it partially dry, and then cleanse the baby's 
ears thoroughly. Go back of them and around 
them in every way. Then rinse out the cotton, 
and wipe off the soapy water. When the baby 
is being dried upon your lap, twist the towel 
into a soft point, and cleanse the interior of 
the ear in this way. Never use a stick, a hair- 
pin, or anything that is at all stiff. If this 
gentle washing is done daily, the baby's ears 
will never require any more serious form of 
treatment. The great thing is that it shall be 
done daily. 

The nose 

Babies should always breathe through the 
nose when asleep. If you find that your baby 
is breathing with his mouth wide open, it is 
a sign that there is some obstruction in his 
nose, or in the passages back of it. The cause 
of this may be nothing more serious than an 
improper cleansing the day before; on the 
other hand it may mean that there is some 
growth at the back of the nose which should 
be examined by the physician. Before calling 
him in, however, try for a day or so what can 
be done by giving the baby's nose a thorough 
washing twice every day. 



58 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

To clean the baby's nose, take an orange 
wood stick and twist upon its pointed end a 
swab of absorbent cotton. Then dip it into 
the jar of white vaseline, and very carefully 
twist it around inside each nostril. This must 
be done with the greatest delicacy, but if the 
mother can only learn to be expert, it is the 
best, easiest and quickest way to accomplish 
the desired and necessary result. The stick 
must lie loosely in the hand, and it must be 
turned from side to side — twisted — never 
pushed up into the nose. If the mother is 
afraid to use the orange wood stick, a little 
roll can be made of the towel, and it may be 
inserted in the same manner. With a little 
care the stick can be used to a better ad- 
vantage, for it is quicker, surer, and in the 
end easier to handle than anything else. 

At night the same process should be under- 
gone, and a little vaseline left in the nostrils 
to facilitate breathing. This treatment is most 
necessary for the child's comfort. 



The hair 

Many babies are born with very long, thick 
hair, but this " first hair," as it is called, in- 
variably falls out in a few days, and the normal 
infant has an almost perfectly bald head, on 



THE BATH 59 

which the growth of hair comes so gradually 
that the caring of it, for at least a year, is a 
matter very easy to accomplish, and presenting 
few problems. 

You should wash the baby's hair at his 
bath daily, but only with the purest soap, thor- 
oughly rinsed off. When partially dry, brush 
the hair upward. This, beside strengthening 
the hair, encourages it to curl. A baby's hair 
may be washed daily until he is a year old — 
after that three times a week in summer, and 
once a month in very cold weather. Every 
child should have his hair washed at least once 
in four weeks, and oftener if he is exposed 
to the dust and dirt of a large city. It is not 
safe, however, to wash his hair if he shows 
signs of cold — experience soon teaches the 
mother that this is a quick and sure way to 
increase the cold. But the application of a 
mild tonic, and gentle massage with a sub- 
sequent brushing, may be substituted at any 
time most satisfactory for the shampoo. 

A simple tonic may be made as follows : 

Sulphate of quinine. . . .thirty grains. 

Bay rum half a pint. 

Castor oil three tablespoons. 



60 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Apply this tonic to the child's scalp with a 
piece of absorbent cotton. Then manipulate 
the scalp very gently, for an inexperienced per- 
son must not attempt a real massage. When 
a healthy glow is seen to cover the scalp, brush 
the hair with a dry soft brush. In all that you 
do for the child remember how tender — how 
very tender — his external skin is. A soft 
hand and a gentle touch is the great require- 
ment the mother must possess to work success- 
fully about her child without jarring either his 
body or his nerves. Many children have scalps 
that are scaly and difficult to keep in good 
order. Vaseline applied thoroughly at night 
will almost invariably correct this unattractive 
condition. To apply vaseline, the hair must 
be parted and the vaseline rubbed only upon the 
scalp, for it is very difficult to remove it from 
the hair itself. 

For infants, instead of the tonic or vaseline, 
rub a little pure olive oil on the scalp whenever 
necessary. This is the very best cure for dan- 
druff. 

On reading over these suggestions, it may 
seem to the inexperienced mother that the 
major portion of her life will have to be spent 
in bathing the new baby, if all the details here 
mentioned are to be accomplished. But, in 



THE BATH 61 

reality, the bath, once it is fully understood, 
is a very simple matter. At most it takes but 
a half hour, and with dexterity, can be thor- 
oughly accomplished in twenty minutes. The 
bath must never be omitted unless the baby has 
fever, cold, or some alarming symptoms — 
such as a rash — that the mother does not 
fully understand. 

Exercise 

One of the most valuable results of the bath 
is that it gives the child exercise. Every baby 
needs exercise, in one form or another. The 
bath, with its subsequent rubbing, and the op- 
portunity it gives the child to relax and kick, 
is one of the greatest blessings he has. Clean- 
liness and exercise, both so important to the 
baby, are obtained by means of the daily bath. 
Without it there is danger that the child may 
not develop properly. Without it he may 
never attain the robust physique which is so 
necessary an accompaniment to his perfect 
mental growth. It is hard to imagine a well, 
comfortable, and happy baby who is without 
the daily stimulant and exercise of a warm 
bath. 



CHAPTER IV 

ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 

Sooner or later the time will come when 
the baby must have one or two bottles a day, 
if only to enable his mother to leave home 
occasionally over the stated intervals between 
feedings. Many doctors advise beginning 
with a daily bottle when the baby is three 
months old. To skip one nursing does not 
decrease the amount of the mother's milk, 
and adds greatly to her comfort and independ- 
ence ; but she must not give way to temptation 
and increase the number of bottles, for if she 
does it will surely tell upon the bulk of her 
own supply. There is another reason, not a 
selfish one, for giving one bottle of artificial 
food, even when the baby is thriving perfectly 
and the mother has more than enough to sat- 
isfy him. It is in case illness, or enforced 
absence, should make it imperative for the 
baby to be weaned at short notice. The bottle 
paves the way for such an emergency, and the 
baby makes the transition more easily than he 

62 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 63 

could possibly do, were he ignorant of how to 
take his food comfortably from the rubber 
nipple. A little practice in learning to do this 
does him no harm, and is the safer course. 
To leave a child ignorant of how to take his 
food from a bottle is running a great risk, for 
at any moment he may be called upon to make 
the change to artificial feeding in a few hours. 
It is not safe for the mother to nurse her child 
during a high fever, or in the acute stages of 
an illness. Here the bottle comes in very 
well for the baby; and the mother, by using 
the breast pump, can keep up her own supply 
until she is well again. It would be almost 
impossible to make a child comfortable in this 
simple way if he did not know how to feed 
from a nursing bottle. The mother must not 
take it upon herself, however, to make this 
change; she must consult the doctor before 
she puts the baby regularly upon any other 
food than breast milk, even if she intends to 
do it only for a short time. To use her own 
judgment in a serious matter of this kind 
would not be wise. She would be very likely 
to nervously exaggerate her own symptoms 
until she fancied herself much more ill than 
she really was, and then by a careless use of 
the breast-pump might lose her own supply 



64 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

altogether. If there are any signs of acute or 
serious illness, call in the physician. It is for 
him to decide whether or no it is safe to con- 
tinue to nurse the baby. If he thinks it is not 
safe, and orders a temporary cessation of 
nursing, the method just suggested will prove 
quite satisfactory. The baby who has become 
accustomed to one bottle a day will find it 
comparatively easy to take all his food in this 
way, until it is pronounced safe for the nurs- 
ings to be continued. 

One bottle a day 

One bottle a day of artificial food, then, 
may be given, with perfect safety, to the baby 
after he is three months old. A satisfactory 
formula for this bottle is made very simply, 
as follows : 

* Cream, half ounce. 
Milk, half ounce. 
Boiled water, three ounces. 
Granulated sugar, one level teaspoonful. 

If it is impossible to obtain pure milk and 
cream, it will not hurt the baby to have con- 
densed milk for one feeding. Condensed milk 

* By cream, is meant an ordinary cream containing 
from 16 to 20 per cent. fat. 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 65 

is fattening, easy to prepare, and seldom dis- 
agrees with the child, however delicate he may 
be. 

But condensed milk does not contain the 
nutritive substances needed for the develop- 
ment of bone, nerve and tissue in the growing 
child, and is for this reason unsafe for reg- 
ular diet. In travelling, or when there is 
doubt as to the pureness of the milk, or for an 
occasional substitute, it is perfectly harmless 
and often very useful. It is easy to prepare, 
and the bottle, which can be freshly made at a 
moment's notice will satisfy the baby, and 
carry him over until his next nursing, which, 
after a condensed milk bottle, he will turn to 
ravenously. Buy only the brand of condensed 
milk ordered by your physician; and after 
opening the can turn out the contents into a 
preserve jar with an air-tight fastener, both 
of which have been previously boiled. Keep 
the milk in this, directly upon the ice, and 
never allow the top of the jar to remain 
off, or loose, for more than a minute at a 
time. 

Condensed milk, exposed to air, and used 
from the open tin, is a fertile source of infec- 
tion, collecting on its sticky surface all the 
germs that are in the neighborhood. 



66 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Condensed milk 

The condensed milk bottle must not be made 
until the baby is ready to take it. It is best 
to boil the water — 3 ounces — in a saucepan, 
and when boiling add the condensed milk — a 
scant teaspoon to 3 ounces is about right. 
This must be cooled before it is poured into 
the bottle and tested carefully before being 
given to the baby. Condensed milk is not 
advised, however, if it is possible to obtain 
pure milk. Let me emphasize the fact that 
condensed milk is entirely unsuitable for the 
regular diet of a baby, and that many grave 
diseases will be likely to make themselves 
manifest in the growing child who has been 
fed from infancy upon it. It is perfectly safe 
to give one bottle a day of condensed milk to 
a baby who is being regularly nursed, but the 
preference should always be given to pure or 
" certified " milk and cream. 

Weaning begun 

One bottle a day, made in either of the sim- 
ple ways just suggested, may be advantageously 
given to the child all through his nursing. 
There will come a time, however, usually when 
he is six or eight months old, when the mother 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 67 

feels that to keep up her own supply and make 
it sufficient for his growing demands, it is 
necessary to begin a regular set of two or even 
three milk bottles daily. This is really the 
beginning of his weaning, and only by adopt- 
ing this plan will she be able to keep up her 
own nursing powers until he has safely turned 
his first year. In some rare instances, the 
mother is able to assume the whole burden 
of nursing, unrelieved. But in the majority of 
cases, were it not for the judicious adding of 
artificial food, little by little, the child would 
be unsatisfied, and therefore would need to be 
weaned probably about the eighth month. But 
why try to keep up the nursing if so many bot- 
tles are given ? The reason for keeping it up, 
is that no matter how healthy the child may be, 
he is sure to have some trifling upsets during 
his teething. At seven months, the first tooth 
begins to appear, and to nurse the child over 
that time, until the first six teeth are cut, will 
help him greatly. During teething, his diges- 
tion is likely to be more or less disturbed. 
Therefore, even if it is found necessary to in- 
crease the bottles to three daily, still keep up the 
nursing, so long as there is enough milk left 
to satisfy the baby. The two formulas just 
given are for an infant at three months of 



68 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

age. These will probably satisfy him until he 
is four months old, when they may both be 
strengthened. But neither formula is suffi- 
ciently strong to do for more than one bottle 
daily. When it is necessary to increase the 
number, the bottles must be made after a 
regular formula received from the physician 
and most carefully carried out. As the child's 
nursings decrease, his health will depend upon 
the manner in which his bottles are made, 
quite as much as upon their contents. 

If the mother has the misfortune to be en- 
tirely unable to nurse her child, his food 
formula should be prescribed only by a phy- 
sician. It is very difficult to bring a baby 
safely through his infancy entirely upon arti- 
ficial food, and no experiments should be tried. 
The doctor must not only prescribe the form- 
ula, but must be called in frequently to watch 
over the child's development. No one but the 
physician is competent to give advice upon the 
subject of how to feed the new born child 
entirely artificially. 

To prepare the baby's bottles 

You will need the following articles to pre- 
pare the baby's milk : Feeding bottles, rubber 
nipples, an 8-ounce graduated measuring glass, 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 



69 



a glass funnel, bottle brush, small nipple brush, 
rubber corks, a quart pitcher for warming the 
bottles in, a pitcher for mixing the food, a 
fine strainer, a spoon, a box of bicarbonate of 
soda, a box of borax, a box of some good 
washing powder. The bottles must be thor- 
oughly cleansed once a day — preferably as 




The Food Table 



soon as they are used — and then filled with 
cold water, standing thus until you are ready 
to make them again. The nipples you will 
have to watch carefully, particularly in hot 
weather. These, together with the rubber 
corks and bottles you must boil at least twice 
a week. They may be boiled every day with 



70 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

advantage. After using, turn the nipples in- 
side out, wash them with the little brush and 
leave them, still inside out, in a covered glass 
jar, soaking in a mild borax solution. With 
this treatment they should keep sweet, clean 
and inviting, but remember that they do not 
last forever, and must be frequently replaced. 
Choose nipples that can be turned inside out 
and that are easy to adjust upon the long 
round bottle so much in vogue — popular be- 
cause it is easy to clean, and easy for the child 
to hold as he grows older. 

When you make the baby's food, always 
make enough for twenty-four hours. Try to 
do it at a time when you are free from inter- 
ruption, and when you can give your whole 
attention to the task. Few mothers realize 
that it is the way the bottles are made, quite 
as much as what they contain, that so often 
causes their indigestibility. 

First stand before you the number of bottles 
you will need. See that they are perfectly 
clean. Then arrange the mixture in your 
pitcher according to the formula you are fol- 
lowing, and fill each bottle, pouring the milk 
through the strainer and the glass funnel into 
the bottle. Then cork at once with a rubber 
cork, or with a cork made of absorbent cotton 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 71 

if you prefer it. If the rubber corks are used, 
they must be cleaned with the nipples and kept 
with them in the covered glass. Then put the 
bottles in the refrigerator, if possible, directly 
against the ice. 

The refrigerator 

If it is not possible to have a separate, or 
" nursery " refrigerator, for the bottles, par- 
ticular care must be taken that they are not 
contaminated by the other food that is nearby. 
Also, it is important for them to stand beside 
the ice, particularly in hot weather. Often, 
when the supply of ice is low, the bottles are 
so far away that the temperature of the milk 
is not below 6o° to 65 ° F. To be thoroughly 
effective, the temperature of the milk while in 
the refrigerator should never be above 50 F. 
Faulty refrigerators are the cause of many of 
the acute cases of illness among bottle-fed 
babies. Many ordinary household refrigerat- 
ors have a separate compartment on top for 
the ice. In this compartment a place may be 
saved beside the ice to stand the bottles, 
while the shelves beneath hold the family sup- 
plies. This is the next best thing to the 
nursery refrigerator. The bottles must never 
be kept in a meat box, or anywhere where they 



72 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

will not be entirely shut away from other 
foods. Next to the bottles, the refrigerator is 
of the greatest importance in keeping the 
baby's milk clean and pure. 

Home-made refrigerator 

A refrigerator — solely for the use of the 
baby — may be made at home at small cost and 
in a very practicable and economical way. To 
do this, a large wooden packing-box having a 
lid must first be obtained. The box should be 
about thirty inches square. This must be filled 
with sawdust. A sheet of tin should then be 
secured, rounded, and placed in the center of 
the box, forming a deep hole, entirely sur- 
rounded by the sawdust. Into this hole it is 
easy to lift an ordinary flour tin, with lid and 
handle. To put this little refrigerator in use, 
first fill the bottom of the flour tin with a few 
pieces of ice cracked in small lumps. Then 
lay the bottles all carefully corked directly 
on the ice. Put the lid down tightly on the 
tin, and lower it by the handle into the hole, 
which must, of course, be rounded to the same 
proportions as the tin itself, for there must 
be no space between. Then put the wooden lid 
down, and the bottles will be perfectly protected 
in a simple, convenient and hygienic way. It 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 



73 



is surprising how small a quantity of ice is 
needed to operate a refrigerator made on this 




A Home-made Refrigerator 








The Can 



plan. Even in hot weather, about one-quarter 
the quantity is needed that is used in the 



74 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

regulation tin nursery refrigerator. It is easy 
in the extreme to make and to care for ; there 
being no troublesome drain, and if the box is 
painted, or covered with a pretty chintz, it 
can be kept in the nursery without incon- 
venience to any one. This refrigerator will 
often be found useful for other purposes. 

Families when boarding, or when at all in 
doubt as to the condition of the common ice 
chest, are strongly urged to prepare such a 
refrigerator solely for the baby's use, by this 
means avoiding any risk which might come 
through the imperfect refrigeration of the 
milk. 

When you have mixed the food, corked the 
bottles and put them on the ice, clean all the 
utensils you have used, and put them on a 
shelf where thev may be covered with a clean 
towel. 

There need be then nothing further on your 
mind concerning the baby's food, and you need 
not think of it again for twenty-four hours. 
Accustom yourself, however, to make the bot- 
tles at regular hours every day. Otherwise, 
you may put them off until the very moment 
when one is needed, which will mean a hurried 
cleansing, an inaccurate mixing, and possibly 
an ill baby. 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 75 

To heat the bottle 

When the time comes to use one of the bot- 
tles, fill your quart pitcher with boiling water. 
Take the cork from one of the bottles and put 
on a fresh rubber nipple. Then stand it in the 
pitcher for a moment or two and it will be 
ready for use. Never test the bottle by put- 
ting the nipple in your mouth. Shake a drop 
of the milk out upon your wrist. If it feels 
pleasantly warm it is perfectly safe to give it 
to the baby; if too hot, stand it to cool for a 
moment or two. Many babies have been badly 
burned by carelessness or inexperience in their 
mothers. It is also dangerous to give a child 
a cold bottle. It v/ill be sure to give him pain. 
For an infant, the temperature of the bottles 
should be always the same. Later on this 
point is not of such great importance. 

To feed the baby 

Do not feed the baby in your arms. Lay 
him upon the bed, and while he is very young, 
hold the bottle so that the neck is always full 
of milk, and take it away from him as soon as 
he has finished it. When the baby grows 
strong enough to guide the bottle with his 
hand, place it upon a pillow, so that he can 



76 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

take it himself. There are several good rea- 
sons for not feeding the baby in your arms. 
The child usually sleeps after his bottle, and in 
lifting him from your arms into his crib, his 
slumbers are very likely to be disturbed. Then 
again, very soon he is able to take the bottle 
alone. This gives you a few moments to your- 
self to do the hundred little nursery chores 
that are never really finished. If he is used to 
company while feeding, he will never be con- 
tent to take his bottle by himself. 

But you must remember one thing. Do not 
go away and leave the empty bottle still stick- 
ing in the baby's mouth; neither must you al- 
low him to fall asleep before it is all taken. 
Watch him constantly while he is feeding. Be 
on hand to rearrange the bottle and to keep 
him awake by a word or a pat. Stay till the 
bottle is quite empty, and take it away with 
you, but do not allow him to form the habit of 
lying in your arms. It is an unnecessary 
habit, and not nearly so good for him as to 
be independent from the start. 

Formulas for feeding 

We come now to the difficult task of sug- 
gesting what to give the baby for his regular 
artificial feedings. We have learned how to 






ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 77 

make and care for the bottles, but to learn 
what to put in them is a much more difficult 
task. It must be remembered that a formula 
agreeing with one child, may not suit another 
at all — and that it is always best to have a 
doctor's advice, and go entirely by his direc- 
tions. I will give a few simple formulas, any 
one of which, if the baby is strong, and you 
are nursing him four or five times daily, will 
more than likely agree; only adding a word 
of caution: If your child is delicate, try no 
experiments. Go at once to the best physician 
in your neighborhood, and get from him full 
instructions about the child's diet, even to the 
most minute detail. 

First 
For a child of six months : 
Cream, ^4 ounce. 
Milk, 2^4 ounces. 
Boiled water, 3 ounces. 
Granulated sugar, 1 teaspoonful. 

Second 

For a child of six months: 
Whole milk, 3 ounces. 
Barley water, 2j4 ounces. 
Lime water, T / 2 ounce. 
Granulated sugar, 1 teaspoonful. 



78 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Third 

For a child of eight months: 
Cream, ]/ 2 ounce. 
Milk, 5 ounces. 
Barley water, 2 ounces. 
Lime water, y 2 ounce. 
Granulated sugar, i teaspoonful. 

Fourth 

For a child of 12 to 14 months: 
Whole milk, gy 2 ounces. 
Lime water, y 2 ounce. 

To make lime water 

Get a piece of lime the size of a lemon and 
put it in a covered two-quart jar and fill the 
jar with boiled water. Shake several times. 
In 24 hours pour off the water into a bottle 
which must be kept corked and cover the lime 
again. This process may be repeated indefi- 
nitely — in fact until the lime has all been dis- 
solved. 

To make barley water 

A tablespoonful of Robinson's patent barley 
must first be thoroughly mixed with a little 
cold water. Add this to a quart of boiling 
water and put in a pinch of salt. Cook in a 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 79 

double boiler twenty minutes and strain. If 
cooked too long, all the strength of the barley 
will evaporate. This must be kept in a covered 
vessel on the ice, for in hot weather it will keep 
only about two days. Barley water may be 
made also with two ounces of pearl barley 
soaked first in cold water, and then boiled in a 
double boiler in two quarts of water until it 
has boiled down to one quart. It then must 
be skimmed, and flavored with a little sugar 
and a pinch of salt. 

The milk 

The two necessary attributes for all milk to 
possess, are that it shall have come from 
healthy cows, and that it shall reach the baby 
within forty-eight hours — in summer within 
twenty-four. Yet it is almost impossible for 
the most careful mother to discover whether 
the milk does possess these attributes; that is 
if she must depend upon the common dairies 
for her supply. The best that she can do is 
to buy an " inspected " or " certified " milk. 
This means that the milk is produced under 
hygienic conditions and handled with special 
care. Even if this milk is more expensive than 
the common grade, it will be found to be 
cheaper in the long run, for it is not a paying 



80 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

experiment to trifle with the digestion of a 
very young child. If certified milk cannot be 
obtained, pasteurize the supply, which process 
insures at least the destruction of such germs 
as are a source of danger and even death. 

Pasteurized milk 

To pasteurize the milk it must be heated to 
X40°-i57° F. for twenty minutes. A tem- 
perature of 1 55 F. continued for twenty min- 
utes is sufficient to kill the germs of such dis- 
eases as tuberculosis, dysentery, scarlet fever 
and diphtheria. Pasteurizing does not hurt 
the milk in any way, but the preference should 
always be given to milk that is certified, or 
known to be so clean and pure that heating is 
unnecessary, because such milk is far more 
nourishing. To pasteurize, an apparatus must 
be bought or made — the Freeman's is often 
advised. 

Home-made pasteurizer 

To make a pasteurizer, it is first necessary 
to buy a tin can with handles, having a tight 
lid. The height of this can must be 14^4 
inches, the diameter 103^ inches, and it must 
hold about nine quarts. Such cans are for 
sale in all department stores. You must then 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 



81 



order a tinsmith to place inside the can, on 
three opposite sides, brackets 6}i inches from 
the top of the can. These are to rest the 



secfioYt 

shoioing 

bracfct 

for* 

tra\j 




Q 



Home-made pasteurizer 




The Bottle-holder 



holder for the bottles upon during the first 
process of pasteurization. He must then make 
a holder for the bottles. This consists of two 



82 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

round sheets of tin, the upper one pierced 
with six holes large enough to stand pint bot- 
tles in, the lower piece notched to slip over the 
brackets. A rod runs through the tw T o plates 
of tin, and is topped with a handle to facilitate 
lifting the holder up and down. A tinsmith 
can put an apparatus roughly together at very 
little cost, and it will be found quite as satis- 
factory as the expensively ready-made ones. 
To use this, or any other pasteurizer, first set 
the six bottles which have been thoroughly 
cleansed into the holder. Fill them according 
to whatever formula you are using, and cork 
very tightly. Then fill the can up to the 
brackets with boiling water. Next, put the 
holder filled with the bottles into the can, and 
let it rest on the brackets. Put the cover 
on quickly. In five minutes remove the cover 
and turn the holder so that it sinks down into 
the boiling water. Do this very quickly, let- 
ting as little steam as possible escape, and cover 
again tightly. Leave it thus for twenty-five 
minutes. Cool the bottles quickly with cold 
water and ice, and keep them at as low a tem- 
perature as possible. Before using, heat them 
again slightly in the usual manner, but never 
pour their contents out into another vessel. 
The milk must not be used later than twenty- 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 83 

four hours after pasteurization, and no rem- 
nants must ever be used. If the allotted feed- 
ing is not all consumed, the remainder of the 
milk must be thrown away. The baby must 
always be fed from the bottles in which the 
milk was pasteurized. 

Sterilized milk 

Sterilized milk will keep on ice for a long 
time, and its principal usefulness is found when 
journeys must be taken, or when the supply of 
ice is insufficient. To sterilize, the milk must 
be kept at a temperature of 220 ° F. for one 
hour. Milk prepared in this way is not ren- 
dered more digestible, but rather the reverse, 
and should be modified for the child in the 
same manner as milk that has not been heated. 
It is not recommended for general use. 

All cow's milk contains germs, even when 
handled most carefully, but without constant 
supervision (which is what we pay for when 
we buy the certified milk) the danger is run of 
conveying to the infant the living germs of 
cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, diphtheria, or 
scarlet fever, for any of these germs are likely 
to be found in impure, unclean, unhygienically 
handled milk. It is best, therefore, whenever 
possible, to feed the infant (when he must be 



84 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

artificially fed) only on certified milk and 
cream. If this is not possible, let the mother 
buy the best and purest milk she can find and 
pasteurize it herself, caring for it in every 
detail with the utmost precision and faithful- 
ness. Impure or faulty milk is responsible 
for so great a percentage of deaths among in- 
fants, that no effort is too great to expend in 
the proper preparation of the baby's food- 
supply. 

Modified milk 

Practically speaking, " modified " milk is 
milk to which something, such as cream, water, 
barley-water, lime-water, etc., has been added. 
All the formulas already given in this book 
constitute " modified " milk. For the mother 
to prepare her baby's milk in such a way is 
what we call " the home modification of in- 
fant's food." By this we mean that to a 
given proportion of milk, other elements are 
added, according to the doctor's prescription. 
In this way all bottles are really " modified 
milk " bottles. 

There is, however, a more scientific mean- 
ing often given to the word. Physicians 
sometimes order for delicate babies food pre- 
pared at a milk laboratory, where the propor- 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 85 

tions of fat, sugar and proteid, can be so exact- 
ly measured that the infant is sure to get only 
what the physician's prescription demands. 
Modified milk put up in this way at a labor- 
atory is left every day at the baby's home, 
and is already in the nursing bottles. All that 
is necessary is to heat one of the bottles at 
each feeding time in the usual way. Doctors 
in large cities often make use of the various 
milk laboratories to insure their directions be- 
ing carefully and exactly carried out. This 
is the usual interpretation given to the term 
" modified milk," though it is hardly a correct 
one, as home modification, which is undertaken 
by so many mothers, is often done quite 
as satisfactorily, even if not as accurately, as 
the work put out by the various milk labora- 
tories. 

Quantity of food to be given at a meal 

For the first week an infant should have 
only 1-13^ ounces at a feeding. 

During the second and third, 1^-3 ounces. 

Fourth and fifth, 3-5 ounces. 

Until he is three months old, 3-5 ounces. 

Third to fifth month, 5-7 ounces. 

Fifth to ninth, 4-6 ounces. 

Ninth to twelfth, 7-9 ounces. 



86 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

If the child is developing normally, his own 
appetite will be the best sign when to increase 
the amount of each feeding. When he seems 
anxious to hold on to the bottle even though 
it is empty, and cries when it is taken away, 
it is time to increase the strength of his food. 
The bottle, when it is exactly right in strength 
and amount, should thoroughly satisfy the 
baby, and he should fall asleep after it, show- 
ing no uneasiness, nor sign of hunger until 
the hour when it is next due approaches. The 
food should not be increased while the child, 
still gaining in weight, seems perfectly satis- 
fied after each meal. 

When the bottle agrees 

When the bottle agrees the baby will have 
a good color, no pain, show little or no dis- 
turbance after feeding; he will sleep well, will 
have regular movements, and gain in weight. 
If he shows the reverse of these symptoms 
to any marked degree, and loses weight, rather 
than experiment any further, call in a physi- 
cian, and obtain his prompt advice. 

Weaning 

Before leaving the problems of bottle feed- 
ing, there are two important questions yet to 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 87 

discuss. How long can a healthy mother con- 
tinue to nurse her child without doing harm 
either to herself or to him, and when must he 
be deprived of the solace and joy of his bottle? 
The baby must not be nursed longer than four- 
teen months, and never entirely longer than ten 
months or at most a year. Some ignorant 
mothers continue to nurse their children far in- 
to their second year. This is very wrong. 
The child who is walking, and cutting his big 
teeth, needs for his development substances 
not found in milk. Neither can a mother 
easily repair in herself the loss of strength 
she must undergo, if she nurses her child too 
long. 

If the baby is weaned as early as the eighth 
or ninth month, he must be given a bottle, for 
he is not far enough advanced to depend en- 
tirely upon milk foods taken from a spoon. If 
he is not weaned until he has entered upon his 
second year, he may be taught quite well to 
eat and drink all his food from a cup or 
spoon. There is one exception to this rule. 
Some children show early in their lives a dis- 
taste for milk. If the milk can be made palat- 
able to them by being heated and given in 
a bottle, there are not sufficient reasons for 
withholding it; in fact, it is better for them 



88 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

to have the milk — even if it is taken from 
a bottle, than to do without this great source 
of nourishment altogether. The milk is also 
taken more slowly through the bottle, which 
is another point in its favor. Every child 
should take at least a quart of mil* daily until 
he is four or five years old, and if a bottle 
is the only means by which he can be in- 
duced to take the required quantity, let him 
have the bottle. The cup is better whenever 
the child shows willingness to be fed from it. 
He must have a real love of milk, however, or 
he will soon refuse it altogether, in which case 
providing for his diet will be full of diffi- 
culties. 

Other foods than milk for the baby 

Nothing in the way of other food should be 
given to the baby until he is ten months old. 
Many mothers do not realize the importance 
of a strictly liquid diet during infancy, and, 
wishing to give the child " a good strengthen- 
ing meal " commit the folly of trying to make 
him take oatmeal, bread, potatoes and other 
such articles of diet, wholly unfitted for his 
toothless mouth, and delicate digestion. 

If the baby is thriving perfectly upon the 
milk formula, it is unnecessary to add anything 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 89 

to it until he is ten months old. At this age 
he may begin with some of the simple farina- 
ceous foods such as farina, strained oatmeal, 
arrowroot, barley jelly. He may also take a 
soft boiled tgg, beef juice, and orange juice. 
After his first birthday, a child who is develop- 
ing normally may have two tablespoons ful of 
beef juice three times a week. The juice of 
an orange, one hour before feeding, may also 
be begun at this time. Try two tablespoons ful 
at first, and gradually increase to four. This 
is an excellent laxative, and all children should 
have it several times a week. 

It must be remembered that the same in- 
telligent care which is given to the baby's food, 
must also be given to the other details of his 
management, for the food alone cannot give the 
desired result of perfect health, unless support- 
ed by an equal care along all the various other 
lines. He must have warm clothing, regular 
habits, plenty of fresh air, absolute cleanliness, 
and freedom from nervous strain if he is to 
progress toward a sturdy childhood without a 
set-back of any kind. Unless he has bodily 
warmth, a plentiful supply of fresh air for his 
lungs, and long hours of sweet and undis- 
turbed rest, the best bottle in the world will 
fail. If the baby is not thriving, before con- 



90 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

demning the food, look carefully into all the 
details of the child's life — a little examination 
may show a carelessness here, or a want of 
method there — little things, but sufficient to 
counteract the good effects of his daily nourish- 
ment. With intelligent supervision of his food, 
his sleep, his surroundings, the child should 
complete the first two years of his life without 
any difficulty. 

Barley jelly 

One tablespoonful of Robinson's patent bar- 
ley which has been dissolved in a little cold 
water, added to a pint of boiling water. Boil 
this, with a pinch of salt, for twenty minutes 
in a double boiler and strain. This may be 
sweetened to make it more palatable. 

Beef juice 

One-half pound of beefsteak, cut from the 
round, very slightly broiled and the juice 
pressed out by a meat or lemon squeezer. 
Season this with salt and give it to the child 
warm. To warm the juice, stand the cup 
which holds it in a dish of hot water. This 
should make about two ounces of juice, though 
there is a great difference, due to the quality of 
the meat. 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 91 

Coddled egg 

Put a fresh egg (shell on) in boiling water. 
Immediately remove it from the fire. The egg 
then cooks slowly while the water is cooling. 
When opened the white of the egg should be of 
the consistency of jelly, and may be given alone 
when the child has a weak digestion. 

Albumin water 

Dissolve the white of one egg in a pint of 
cold boiled water. This is often ordered for 
infants in cases of acute stomach trouble. For 
older children the white of the egg and a little 
sugar and lemon juice may be added to one 
cup of cold water that has been boiled, shaken 
until thoroughly blended, and served very cold. 

Albumin orange 

To the unbeaten white of one egg add the 
juice of an orange and a little sugar. Strain, 
and set on the ice to cool. Serve cold. 

Rice milk 

Soak one ounce of rice for twelve hours. 
Strain, and add one pint of scalded milk, a 
saltspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. 
Stir well, and cook for one hour. Rub through 



92 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

a fine sieve and thin with more hot milk if 
desired. 

Sago or tapioca may be used in the same 
way. 

Arrowroot gruel 

Mix two teaspoonfuls of arrowroot with 
two tablespoonfuls of cold water until smooth. 
Add to it one cup of boiling milk (or water). 
Cook in double boiler for two hours. Add a 
little salt, strain and serve hot. 

Cream toast 

Scald one cup of milk. Melt a tablespoonful 
of butter, add to it a tablespoonful of flour. 
Remove from fire and add the milk gradually. 
Then stir over the fire continually until smooth, 
cooking for five minutes after mixing, or until 
the starch is thoroughly blended. Then pour 
it over the toast, which has been cut in small 
thin slices, with the crusts removed. 

Food for the second year 

The child has chicken or mutton broth now 
added to his diet. He may have boiled rice, 
junket, cereals which have been thoroughly 
cooked, the juice of fresh fruits, baked apples, 
apple sauce, prune pulp, scraped meat occasion- 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 93 

ally, and simple desserts. He should eat dried 
bread and toast with his meals — a potato 
moistened with good dish gravy may also be 
given at two years of age. Avoid rich gravy 
of any sort. 

Proper diet for child of two years 

First meal: Plain milk, 12 ounces. 

Second meal: A cereal with cream, a slice of 
bread or toast. 

Third meal: Beef juice, rare meat chopped 
very fine, a cup of broth, or an egg, soft 
boiled, and mixed with bread crumbs. Fruit, 
junket, or rice jelly for dessert. 

Fourth meal: Barley or farina, and milk to 
the amount of 12 ounces, with bread, toast, 
or a simple cracker. 

Fifth meal: Ten ounces of plain milk. 

Water 

It must not be forgotten that children need 
water. Water must be offered to them several 
times every day, particularly in warm weather. 
It should be boiled daily, then cooled, and kept 
in a covered glass jar. Water must not be 
kept over from hour to hour in the room, 
but must be drawn fresh every time the child 
needs it. 



94 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Questions concerning the baby's food that may 
trouble the young mother. 

(i) What should be done if the baby has a 
poor appetite? 

Lengthen the period between feedings. Do 
not make the mistake of offering food too per- 
sistently to a child who has no appetite. 
Search out the source of his trouble, and until 
you are able to correct it, add an hour or even 
more to the interval between his meals. 

(2) What should the nursing mother avoid 
in her diet? 

Many babies are made verv uncomfortable, 
even to the point of severe colic attacks, wher 
their mothers take sour fruit. Cucumbers, to- 
matoes and salad dressing are usually ruled 
out. But many infants do not show this dis- 
turbance at all, so that the mother's guide must 
be her own child's condition. There can be no 
fixed rule. It is not necessary to deny your- 
self until you are sure that it is your diet that 
has affected the baby. But be constantly on 
the lookout for what may cause him trouble. 



(3) How long should the child be allowed to 

rse? 

Never longer than twenty minutes. 



nurse? 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 95 

(4) Is there any mode of living by which 
the mother may lengthen her ability to nurse 
her child? 

By taking regular exercise, and by having 
more sleep that she would ordinarily take. 
She must also drink a great deal of liquid food 
such as cocoa and milk. Eat wholesomely and 
plentifully. Strong tea, coffee and wine should 
be partaken of sparingly. 

(5) What emotions in the mother are likely 
to affect the child? 

Grief, excitement, passion, excessive fatigue 
and worry are all communicable to the baby. 
Particularly worrying; a state of mind which 
she should endeavor to conquer in herself and 
subdue, at least while she is nursing her baby. 

(6) Should any marked change be made in 
the baby's bottle in hot weather ? 

At such times it is w T ell to dilute the food, to 
give more barley water and less milk, and to 
reduce the proportion of fat by giving a milk 
that is less rich. Water should be offered to 
him often. 

(7) What change should be made if the 
baby vomits habitually after his bottles? 

Reduce the quantity of his food a little and 



96 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

see that he rests for twenty minutes after each 
bottle. Moving the baby around is often en- 
tirely accountable for it. Look at the nipple 
also to satisfy yourself that the hole is not too 
large, and to his clothes lest they be too tight. 

(8) What should be done if the baby shows 
habitual distress after each meal? 

Colic or severe pain usually follow an ac- 
cumulation of gas in the intestines. If a little 
hot water with a few drops of soda mint does 
not stop the pain, and if it occurs regularly, it 
is a sign that the formula of the bottle is not 
agreeing. It is better to call in the physician 
rather than experiment any further yourself. 

(9) What should be done when the child 
is seized with an acute attack of vomiting, fever 
and pain, which may be only indigestion or 
may be the beginning of an illness? 

Until you can obtain advice, stop all the milk. 
Give only albumin water or a little barley 
water until the vomiting has ceased for twenty- 
four hours, or until you receive instruction 
from the doctor. 

(10) What should be done if the child does 
not sleep well? 

Sleeplessness usually is a sign that the food 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 97 

is not agreeing perfectly. Or it may be the 
result of over-feeding. Children who are 
nursed too long, or who are fed during the 
night are often poor sleepers. It may also 
be from nervousness. See that the child is not 
played with before going to bed; see that his 
room is not too hot, and that there is no light. 
Do all that you can to obtain a bottle that suits 
him ; and above all, never give him any sleep- 
ing powders or soothing syrups. Any devices 
to make the baby sleep, such as a " pacifier," 
empty bottle or the like are all ruinous to his 
temper and his health. 

( 1 1 ) When should the child walk ? 

No definite time can be given, as it varies 
greatly. About eighteen months. 

(12) When should he cut his first teeth? 
Somewhere about his seventh month. 

(13) When should he speak? 
Some authorities say that at the end of his 
first year the child should be able to say about 
ten words — of course no sentences. 



CHAPTER V 

THE SICK BABY 

There are a few simple rules that the mother 
will do well to observe in caring for a sick 
baby. By so doing she will greatly aid the 
doctor in his efforts to effect a prompt cure. 
These rules pertain chiefly to the surroundings 
of the child and the arrangement of the sick 
room. The mother's tact and personal qual- 
ifications for the task of nursing will also be 
of the greatest assistance to the doctor. It 
will not do any harm for her to take a quiet 
peep into her own nature, and see if she has, 
or can cultivate, the attributes that will help 
him most. 

To be a good nurse 

To be a good nurse the mother must before 
all else possess self-control. She must never 
allow the child to see the seriousness of his ill- 
ness reflected in her face. Cheerfulness is a 
quality that will help the little patient greatly to 
bear his suffering. If the mother is cheerful, 

98 



THE SICK BABY 99 

kind, and uncomplaining, she will supply the 
moral atmosphere of hope so necessary to find 
in the sick room. 

If the disease is long or contagious, she 
should dress in wash stuffs — only in this way 
can she keep herself fresh and clean. She 
must try to put away from her the general 
worries of the house, and center all her powers 
for the time being upon the problems of the 
sick room. 

A few rules to the mother, while in the sick 

room 

Never talk depressingly, and never talk of 
the patient's symptoms. Be silent a great deal, 
and when you speak, speak quietly — remem- 
bering that in illness the nerves are very sen- 
sitive. Always show strict obedience to the 
doctor, and keep alive the child's faith in 
him. Never get " flurried." Try in every 
way to control yourself, for your lack of self- 
control will quickly be communicated to the 
child. 

Be accurate and regular to the minute in 
carrying out the regime of the sick room. 

Be very tender in your touch, and always 
patient, remembering how weak and pitiful a 
thing a suffering child is. 



100 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Never say that you see no improvement 
before the child. The principal thing is to 
keep up his courage, even when your own is 
failing beneath you. These rules are applic- 
able to the child rather than to the infant, 
though he also may profit by some of them. 

The sick room 

It is always best for the sick room to be at 
the top of the house, so that, should the disease 
prove contagious, a disinfected sheet may be 
hung at the head of the stairs, and the room, in 
this way, cut off entirely from the rest of the 
house. Never try to nurse a child in a double 
bed. It will make your task twice as difficult 
as it need be. A single bed — a high one, if 
you can get it — is what you should have, and 
a sofa must be in the room to use for the 
patient during convalescence, and for yourself 
when you wish to sleep, yet cannot leave the 
room. In acute illness, there should be very 
little light in the sick room, and no glare. Dur- 
ing most of the diseases of childhood the eyes 
are weak and painful, therefore place the bed 
so that there is no possibility of the glare 
distressing him. If the disease is contagious, 
take up the carpet, and remove the heavy cur- 



THE SICK BABY 101 

tains. Dark shades should be in the window, 
and no unnecessary furniture about, as you will 
need all the space available for yourself and for 
the convenience of your patient. 

Ventilation and heat 

The ventilation of the sick room is one of 
its most important points. An open fireplace 
removes many difficulties. If this cannot be 
had, a board should be placed in the lower 
sash of the window, to insure a constant flow 
of fresh air into the upper part of the room. 
There must always be a screen in the sick room, 
for it will be needed on many occasions. In 
any illness, no matter how severe, the room 
must be thoroughly aired twice a day. Choose 
a time when the sun is shining and the air is 
as warm as possible. Throw a thick quilt 
over the child, even over his head, and open 
all the windows for several minutes. The 
temperature of the sick room should be reg- 
ulated by a correct thermometer, and aired 
in this manner whenever necessary. An oil 
stove should be used in sickness only as a last 
resort. If it is impossible to have an open 
fire, or sufficient hot air, a small wood stove 
should be put up temporarily. If the heat is 



102 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

by steam, always set a bowl of water on the ra- 
diator, to take away the extreme dryness of 
the air. 

Medicines 

Have a small table placed where the patient 
will not see it, on which to keep all the 
medicines, spirit lamp, clinical thermometer 
and chart. These should be spread out upon a 
waiter that can be easily washed. In prepar- 
ing the child's medicine, do so quickly and 
without comment. Bring it to the bedside in 
a quiet but determined manner. Do not fight 
or argue with a child about his medicine. 
When it is time to give the dose, give it at once. 
If the child refuses to take it, hold him upon 
your lap and give it to him by gentle force. 
This is the only way to manage a sick child. 
To begin to wrangle about each dose, and to 
occasionally let him off will make the obstacles 
in treating him by medicine almost insur- 
mountable. Strict but always kind discipline 
must be the rule of the sick room. 

How to feed a sick child 

When it is necessary to lift the child's head 
for the purpose of giving him nourishment, 
always lift the pillow also. Put your left arm 



THE SICK BABY 103 

under the pillow, raising the child's head with 
it, very slowly and gently. If you are giving 
the food in a tumbler, see that it is a small 
one, and only about two thirds full. The child 
will derive much more satisfaction from drain- 
ing a small glass, than he will if allowed to 
take only a portion of the contents of a larger 
one. Be careful that each mouthful is swal- 
lowed before giving another. An ill or weak 
child is very likely to choke over his nourish- 
ment, therefore he should be prevented from 
swallowing it too quickly. A glass tube may 
be used if the child is old enough to be in- 
structed how to drink from it. If a feeding 
cup is preferred it should be of glass, so that 
you will be able to see how much the child is 
taking, and not feed him too quickly. The 
food offered should be either very hot or very 
cold. Nothing is more unpalatable than luke- 
warm food. The child will be sure to refuse 
it, if it is given so. A little cracked ice is often 
found to give great comfort to a sick child. 

Meals 

Give the child his meals in as appetizing a 
manner as possible. Here is where you can 
exhibit real genius — by coaxing, by persua- 
sion and by story telling until you manage 



104 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

to get the meal taken. It will be a difficult 
task, for the sick child shows little appetite, 
but much can be done by presenting his meals 
daintily, and by making it a pleasant time of 
conversation and amusement. Of course a 
very ill child must be fed, as he is given his 
medicine, with almost military discipline and 
regularity, but there are so many cases when, 
though the child is not in danger, he is ill 
enough to show no desire to eat and must be 
persuaded and cajoled until the proper amount 
of food is consumed. 

Care of the mouth in sickness 

The appetite is greatly influenced by the 
condition of the mouth. The child will have 
little inclination to eat if his tongue is coated, 
his mouth sore, and his lips parched and dry. 
The mouth should be rinsed after each feed- 
ing with pure water, to which a few drops of 
listerine have been added. (Two teaspoonfuls 
to a cup of water.) If this is done, there will 
be much greater likelihood that the child will 
retain his appetite. Milk, which is almost al- 
ways given to the child in sickness, ferments 
if it remains in the mouth, and such fermen- 
tation entirely destroys the sense of taste. To 
rinse the child's mouth, cover your finger with 



THE SICK BABY 105 

absorbent cotton, and carry it dripping with the 
listerine and water into every crevice of his 
mouth. If his lips are very dry, moisten them 
with vaseline or cold cream. 

Visitors 

The sick child should be let alone. No one 
should be admitted to the room except with the 
doctor's express consent. Probably it is im- 
possible for the robust and well to realize how 
trying their presence is to a weak and suffer- 
ing child. The child will recover more prompt- 
ly if he is kept alone with his mother until far 
along in convalescence. Allow no visitors, 
then, except by express permission. This is 
one of the most important rules of the sick 
room. 

When should the doctor be sent for? 

It is sometimes very hard for an inexper- 
ienced mother to know when it is necessary to 
call in a physician. To her anxious eye, all 
signs of disturbance in her baby, however 
slight, are full of ominous significance — yet 
she does not want to be " foolish," and so she 
hesitates. 

Sudden loss of appetite, a chill, extreme 
pallor, high temperature and vomiting, are the 



106 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

usual signs that precede illness. Every house- 
hold should possess a clinical thermometer, for 
after such symptoms the child's temperature 
should be taken at once. Although a very 
slight disturbance often causes fever in in- 
fants, if any marked rise in temperature is 
found over 99 (98!° is the normal), it 
is safest to call in the doctor without loss of 
time. Take the child's temperature by placing 
the thermometer (after thoroughly shaking it) 
in the soft folds of the thigh, in the rectum, or 
in the mouth if he will permit it. Keep it in 
place from three to five minutes; 104 F. in a 
child usually signifies a serious condition, al- 
though in some diseases a child may be very ill 
and have practically no fever. As babies be- 
come ill very quickly, it is best to be on the safe 
side, however, and to send for the doctor as 
soon as there is a marked or continued rise in 
temperature, or when there are any symptoms 
of prostration, chill, acute pain, or general las- 
situde. 

Make it a habit to wash the thermometer as 
soon as you have used it — in fact, before lay- 
ing it out of your hand. 



THE SICK BABY 107 

Teething 

Be particularly careful of the child's diet 
during the process of teething. Watch him 
closely in every way, and at the first sign of 
digestive disturbance, be on your guard, ready 
at a moment's notice to change or dilute his 
food, or to call in the physician. While teeth- 
ing, children are usually fretful, they sleep 
poorly, and may lose their appetites. They 
have a curious little nagging cry, and try to 
alleviate their pain by biting their fingers and 
toys. They may even have slight fever ; their 
weight often remains stationary. Many of 
the symptoms, however, that are attributed to 
teething are in reality due to carelessness in 
feeding. Therefore be continually on the 
watch for all the little points that have to do 
with the baby's food supply; for this can be 
the source of much of his trouble. 

There are twenty teeth to be cut by the 
baby from his fifth to his thirtieth month. 
The two central lower teeth are usually the 
first to appear. Next are the four central up- 
per teeth; these usually come from the eighth 
to the twelfth month. From the twelfth to 
the eighteenth month the other two lower cen- 
tral teeth and the four front double teeth 



108 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

appear. Then follow the " eye " teeth, the 
" stomach " teeth, which appear between the 
eighteenth and the twenty- fourth months. 
The four back double teeth come between 
the twenty-fourth and the thirtieth month. 
These complete the first set. It is hard to give 
any positive rules about the first appearance 
of the various teeth; for the date differs so 
greatly — any marked delay in dentition, how- 
ever, points to disease and should be inves- 
tigated. 

Give the child only suitable toys, such as 
rings of hard rubber or ivory, to bite on while 
he is teething; and watch his digestion and his 
food. See that his feet and legs are kept 
warm, and that he has plenty of water to 
drink. If he droops a little do not worry, 
but if he has high temperature and show r s 
signs of acute trouble in his stomach or bowels, 
send at once for the physician, as during the 
period of dentition children are particularly 
susceptible to illness. 

Ear Ache 

Many babies have a great deal of ear-ache. 
But the ear, so delicate in its construction, is 
not easy for the mother to treat without ex- 
perienced aid. Dry heat can, however, be ap- 



THE SICK BABY 109 

plied without running any risk, and is a great 
comfort to the child. Cover the ear with 
cotton and apply a small hot- water bag. If the 
pain is severe, the child will be glad to lie 
down with his ear upon it, for it is very 
soothing and often entirely alleviates his dis- 
tress. A soft rubber ear-syringe may be 
filled with warm water and poured into the 
ear several times. It is not wise to drop any- 
thing such as oil or laudanum into the ear 
without instructions from the doctor. If the 
pain does not cease after several hours of this 
simple local treatment it is best to seek ad- 
vice. 

Mouth ulcers 

Tiny ulcers often come upon the baby's 
gums, and they are extremely painful. They 
may be cured as a rule by being touched with 
a little dry borax. The mouth when ulcer- 
ated should be washed with the boric acid 
solution after each feeding. 

Croup 

As croup is attended by much difficulty in 
breathing, it is always apprehended w T ith the 
greatest terror by the mother. Simple, or 
spasmodic croup, is not particularly dangerous, 



110 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

but it should be treated at once. If the child 
wakes up at night flushed, with a dry barking 
cough, and difficult breathing, give him five 
drops of syrup of ipecac every half hour 
until relieved. If the symptoms are very se- 
vere, give half a teaspoonful of the syrup 
every fifteen minutes until the child vomits. 
A kettle steaming in the room will often 
give great relief to a child who is struggling 
with croup. 

Colic 

During colic the child cries sharply and 
frequently and draws his feet up, showing the 
pain also by contraction of the muscles of the 
face. First see that the feet are warm. Let 
the baby lie on his stomach on a hot water bag. 
Half a sodamint tablet may be given in a 
tablespoonful of very warm water. Warmth 
is the surest way to counteract the pain. An 
injection of half a teacupful of warm water 
and soapsuds is often a great relief. An extra 
flannel band about the abdomen is a great help 
in preventing colic, so also is a spice plaster, 
which may be held over the child's stomach 
for an hour at a time when he is in pain. Full 
directions for making a spice plaster will be 
found on page 154. 



THE SICK BABY 111 

Sore eyes 

A simple eye wash for children who have 
weak, red, or slightly discharging eyes may 
be prepared as follows : Boric acid two grains, 
borax five grains, to one ounce of rose water. 
Have this put up at the drug store, and use it 
freely, with cotton, or, when the child is old 
enough, with an eye cup. 

It is dangerous to tamper with the eyes, and 
a specialist should be consulted at once if 
there is regular discharge, or any unusual ap- 
pearance about the eyes. 

Biliousness 

Every five or six weeks it is a common thing 
to note in children coated tongue, poor color, 
and excessive irritability. This is pretty sure 
to come from some slight clogging of the sys- 
tem. Two teaspoonfuls of castor oil given 
at this time is a most valuable corrective. 

A mild dose of this kind may be given with- 
out any danger, and it is not at all too often 
to make a practice of administering it to the 
normal healthy child every six weeks or two 
months. Castor oil can be taken more readily 
after a piece of ice has been held in the mouth 
for some minutes. It is not a pleasant dose, 



112 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

but is one of the best medicines for children, 
and should be given regularly during infancy 
and far on into childhood. 

Cold 

Mothers often complain that their children 
are always " taking cold." To harden such 
children is difficult, for our natural instinct is 
to use every means in our power to protect a 
child whom we know to be sensitive, from any 
hardening outside influence. Yet it is nec- 
essary to use some strenuous method of treat- 
ment if the resisting power of the child is to 
be really stimulated. One very good way is 
to bathe the child's throat and neck with cold 
water every day. Following this, he may 
soon be taught to submit to a cold sponge after 
his bath. Let him stand up in the hot water, 
and, after turning on the cold spigot, sponge 
him briskly, first with tepid and then with 
cold water. This is a very good preventive 
for sensitiveness to cold. 

The quickest way of curing a cold in the 
head is to spray the nose with a mild cleansing 
solution. Children, with a little patience, can 
be taught to submit to this form of treatment 
very readily. It should be used at once when 
there is any appearance of cold, or, in suscep- 



THE SICK BABY 113 

tible children, after they have been exposed 
to infection, or during journeys and after be- 
ing in a crowd. 

Have a simple throat atomizer and put in it 
Dobell's solution, one teaspoonful to three 
tablespoons ful of water. Then spray each 
nostril two or three times, teaching the child to 
spit out the fluid as soon as he feels it in his 
throat. If the child is treated in this way 
from infancy he will have no terror of the 
process, and will allow his throat and nose to 
be sprayed as a matter of course. In children 
under two, this should be done only twice in 
twenty- four hours. Once before being put to 
bed, and once again about ten in the morning. 
In older children it may be done three or even 
four times daily. It greatly relieves the con- 
gestion back of the nose, and enables them to 
sleep with comfort even in the worst stages of 
a heavy cold. 

Patent medicine 

Never give your baby any form of adver- 
tised medicine. Neither is it safe to give him 
some concoction prescribed by a friend next 
door or a neighbor across the way. It is well 
known to those who have investigated the sub- 
ject, that many of the " cures " and " soothing 



114 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

syrups " are nothing but drugs or alcohol dis- 
guised in some palatable sugary substance. 
They should never be given by any intelligent 
mother to her child. If you are unable to 
command the services of a reputable physician, 
take your child to the nearest hospital clinic, 
where you will have at no cost to yourself the 
best advice and the most competent attention. 
No one should be allowed to prescribe for your 
child, and be chary of taking advice. What- 
ever you do, do not commit the folly of putting 
into your baby's stomach any of the destruc- 
tive and poisonous combinations known as 
patent medicines. 

How to help the doctor 

It will be a great help to the doctor if you 
teach your baby early in his life to put out his 
tongue ; take a pill ; gargle ; and allow his throat 
and eyes to be examined. Never threaten the 
baby with tales of " what the doctor will do if 
he doesn't behave." Tell the child that the 
doctor is his best friend, and teach him to be 
loyal and obedient. He must know that 
without his co-operation the doctor cannot cure 
him. The medicines and regimen advised by 
the physician must never be confounded in the 
child's mind with punishments for bad be- 



THE SICK BABY 115 

havior, or evidences of a personal grudge borne 
against him by the doctor. Too often this at- 
titude of mind is induced through carelessness 
of the mother, who should use instead every 
method of teaching her child the importance of 
giving obedient love to his physician. I know 
several babies — one two and a half, one three, 
and one four or thereabouts — who can take 
pills, show their throats, allow their noses to 
be sprayed and their eyes washed, all without 
a murmur. This has been accomplished by the 
parents, who have made the matter a part of 
their children's education from earliest baby- 
hood, saving them much misery in after life. 

Laxatives 

Milk of magnesia, one teaspoonful in the two 
evening bottles is quite a harmless, and at the 
same time a most satisfactory laxative. 
Orange juice, given once daily, an hour be- 
fore feeding, is also excellent. If the child 
is trained from earliest infancy to have regular 
habits, very little help of this kind will be 
needed. If possible, arrange matters so that it 
never becomes necessary to give an injection. 
Nothing can be worse than to cause the child 
to become a victim of this practice. He will 
soon lose entirely the power to have natural 



116 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

movements, and the strength of his muscles 
may be interfered with for life. I, personally, 
disapprove highly of all forms of injections 
and suppositories. Regularity, and an occa- 
sional — very occasional — mild laxative is all 
that a well child, properly nourished and care- 
fully fed, should require. He should be reg- 
ulated through his food whenever possible, by 
diluting it, giving strained oatmeal, fresh fruit 
or barley water, as the case may demand. All 
medicine is hard on the child's digestion, and 
should be resorted to only when everything else 
has failed. The " hands off " treatment, and 
a carefully watched and well regulated diet 
should be all that the average healthy child 
requires. It is a system of treatment hard for 
the over-anxious, apprehensive young mother 
to follow, but it is productive of wonderful 
results. 



CHAPTER VI 

CARE OF THE WELL CHILD 

The problems of childhood differ quite ma- 
terially from those which confront the young 
mother when left alone for the first time, in 
full charge of her new born child. The only 
cares she had at that time were physical cares. 
To tend his little body in the best way that she 
knew how, to keep him well and strong, and to 
guard against disease. Now, added to all these 
cares, for they still remain, are new problems 
which she tries to meet with courage, under- 
standing quite well how full of difficulties they 
are and how very easy it is to make mis- 
takes. 

As the child develops he presents a thousand 
problems — each seemingly more full of per- 
plexities than the last. There is now a will to 
contend with, a personality. This is what 
makes the practical decisions of every day 
abound with so many difficulties. How far 
should the preferences and prejudices of a child 
be considered ? This is often one of the hard- 

117 



118 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

est points for the mother to decide. In little 
things it seems wisest to give way. When a 
child wants anything he wants it so very hard, 
that if the matter is not vital, it is best in the 
long run to give in. But if there is to be any 
happiness for either mother or child, there 
must be a stronger will, and that will must be 
the mother's. She must rule without a ques- 
tion all the higher factors of her child's de- 
veloping life. 

The child of four or five must also have a 
daily regimen. Regularity and habit are just 
as important in childhood as in infancy. By 
keeping up with the same strictness the law 
of order and rhythm that pervaded his infancy, 
the precious traits of self-control and discipline 
are made fast in the child's life forever. 

1 The nap 

Influence the child by tact and diplomacy to 
take his daily nap as long as you can do so. It 
is seldom that this can be managed after four 
years of age, for all children will sooner or 
later rebel against it, but certainly it should 
be insisted upon up to this time, and longer if 
possible. The nap has a most salutary effect 
upon the child's nerves, calming him wonder- 
fully, and preparing him to enjoy the remain- 



THE WELL CHILD 119 

der of the day without a storm. Many chil- 
dren are cross at bed-time because they are 
overtired, and if the daily nap could be insisted 
upon for all children under four, there would 
be much less friction in the average home. 

Even after the nap has become a thing of 
the past, every child (particularly in hot 
weather) should rest for an hour in the early 
afternoon. Let the child undress, sponge his 
face and hands and lie down upon the bed, 
looking at pictures or amusing himself quietly 
during the heat of the day, and he will be far 
happier and less troublesome later on. Chil- 
dren get overtired very quickly, and parents 
should guard them against the nervous strain 
of exhaustion, and insist upon a rest of this 
kind even until they are quite grown up. 

Exercise 

Exercise, taken in the open air whenever 
possible, should be as important a part of the 
child's daily regime as are his meals. Until he 
walks with perfect ease, the coach or go-cart 
should be used a great deal of the time; but 
as soon as the child is strong enough to enjoy 
his own games, and is able to run about and 
amuse himself, it may safely be dispensed with. 
The older the child grows, the more he should 



120 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

be out of doors. Exercise is the one thing 
he cannot do without, for it regulates his sleep, 
his digestion, his appetite, and, in fact, his 
whole life. A child over four may be taken 
out in all kinds of weather except in extreme 
damp, rain, or in very high winds. He will 
no longer be affected by the cold as he was 
during infancy. As the child leaves babyhood, 
he can be taught some simple calisthenics with 
great advantage to his muscular development. 
Tiny dumb-bells can be bought and the child 
instructed how to perform a few of the first 
exercises. A rainy afternoon may be spent in 
this way very profitably. In winter a regular 
drill, dancing, or dumb-bell figures will take 
the place of the outing, and can be performed 
in an open room — provided the child is 
wrapped up warmly. It is absolutely necessary 
for the growing child to have fresh air every 
day. Many mothers have found it most con- 
venient to open a room in this way, and allow 
the children to play in it, when the regular 
walk for one reason or another was found 
impracticable. 

The child's activities 

The mischievous child is the child whose 
activities are constantly thwarted and mis- 



THE WELL CHILD 121 

understood. Beyond a certain point, it is im- 
possible to repress these activities, and event- 
ually they will burst out in all directions, 
particularly when too great an effort is made 
to keep them down. The result is that unat- 
tractive object, an unruly, overbearing, mis- 
chievous child. 

When the child reaches the active age, there 
are many ways of meeting the problem. The 
most satisfactory way is to find definite em- 
ployment for each activity as soon as its par- 
ticular phase is presented. 

Giving the child something to do which he 
believes is helpful to those around him is a 
wise way of meeting many of the difficulties 
that arise as babyhood is left further and fur- 
ther behind. 

As soon as the child is old enough to under- 
stand he should be made in some way, however 
light, to feel responsibility. Children love to 
be important (even as their elders do), and 
nothing develops a child better than this feel- 
ing that he is a person of importance in the 
home life, and that his little duties are valuable 
to those he loves. 

Whenever it is possible, there should be a 
place in the house devoted solely to the chil- 
dren. The normal child will always seem 



122 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

troublesome and noisy if his amusements are 
restricted to the library or the parlor. The 
same child, if turned into a play- room appro- 
priately fitted with objects upon which he may 
spend his surplus energy, will emerge after a 
long day of play, perfectly docile and content. 

Nothing is more unbearable from a child's 
point of view than to have nothing to do. 
At once he becomes mischievous, noisy, and 
ill-tempered. His activities, representing as 
they do his mental and physical health, should 
be taken in hand and studied. He should be 
given something to do. The result will be 
most happy. The mother will have time to at- 
tend to her duties, the child will have some- 
thing definite on w*hich to spend the energies 
of his body and mind. 

If it is impossible to give a room over to 
the sole uses of the children, let each child have 
at least one place in the home that without 
qualification is his own. A bureau drawer, 
or a shelf in a closet devoted to his own wishes 
will give him a feeling of proprietorship and 
responsibility that will develop him most as- 
tonishingly. 

A child over four may have building blocks ; 
dull scissors, with which to cut out from the 
pages of old magazines; a scrap book, in which 



THE WELL CHILD 128 

to paste; crayons and paints; and, if a girl, a 
doll with its appurtenances will mean to her a 
second life. Boys, even little boys, should be 
given opportunities to enjoy out-door sports 
whenever possible ; and for rainy days, simple 
tools, such as a board with nails, a hammer 
and a saw. Every country child should have 
a garden, and to enjoy a pet of some kind is 
the inalienable right of childhood! 

It is well to prepare for the children's play 
as thoughtfully as for their meals and clothes. 
By supplying natural and useful channels for 
the child's activities as they develop, the bridge 
between the fourth and tenth year is safely 
passed, and the child changes imperceptibly 
into the school-boy or girl of promise, energies 
well in hand, and fully equipped with powers 
of concentration and self -discipline. 

It is sometimes hard for parents to be sym- 
pathetic with the restlessness apparent in their 
growing children. Their plans and efforts so 
often seem " foolish," their energies so seldom 
pointed in directions that to parental eyes seem 
profitable. 

Yet this very sympathy is the one thing 
needful for the child to have, for, even at an 
early age sympathy begins to play a vital part 
in the life of mother and child. Without it 



124 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

the field is indeed arid, for it is the rain and sky 
and blessed sun to both. 

The bath and the teeth 

The daily bath should still be given to the 
child. The habit, begun in infancy, of a thor- 
ough bodily cleansing every day is one of the 
most valuable of all the nursery rules. Clean- 
ing the teeth must also be insisted upon. Pre- 
cipitated chalk and powdered orris makes a 
very good dentifrice, and the child should be 
taught how to use it on his teeth twice every 
day. Many mothers are careless about this, 
with the result that a great percentage of chil- 
dren have hopelessly decayed teeth very early in 
their lives. As a matter of rigorous duty, 
children should be taken to a dentist twice 
every year. Parents who neglect this, prepare 
for their children years of suffering, poor 
digestions, and great personal disfigurement in 
after life. Whatever else is put aside, do not 
neglect the children's teeth. At five — or be- 
fore, if decay is found — the yearly visits to 
the dentist should begin. 

Diet 

In childhood it is not necessary to take quite 
the same precautions regarding the food as 



THE WELL CHILD 125 

were found imperative during infancy. It is 
no longer necessary to buy certified milk. The 
bottles have either entirely disappeared, or are 
used only occasionally to tempt the child into 
drinking the required quantity of milk, for 
which he has shown a distaste. It is still 
important that the child's diet should be accord- 
ing to a given regime, and that the details of 
his food, its preparation, cleanliness and 
healthful properties, should all be under the 
strictest supervision. 

Diet for the child of three 

First meal, 7 a. m., or whenever he awakens: 
Half an orange, milk, oat-meal, grits, or any 
cereal, bread and butter. 

Second meal, 11 a. m.: A glass of milk, or a 
little beef tea or chicken broth with a biscuit. 

Third meal, 2 p. m.: A slice of turkey, 
chicken, mutton or beef, minced very fine, a 
baked potato with butter or gravy, bread and 
butter, and a simple dessert such as junket, rice 
pudding, baked apple, etc. 

Fourth meal 6 p. m. : Milk toast, or a glass 
of milk and a slice of bread. 

After the child begins to eat somewhat the 
same food as the older members of his family, 
and at the same time, there is no objection to 



126 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

his having his meals at the table, provided he is 
not unwisely indulged. His food should be 
constantly supervised, and unless there is some 
trustworthy person to undertake the matter of 
his diet in a room apart, it is better for him 
to come to the table and sit beside his mother, 
where she can see and control what he eats. 

Diet for children over four 

Breakfast: Half an orange., milk, cereal and 
cream, bread and butter, and either boiled, 
scrambled or poached eggs. 

Dinner: Clear soup, meat roasted or broiled, 
chicken hash or fresh fish, potatoes, baked or 
mashed, and as a second vegetable either spin- 
ach, stewed celery, cauliflower, hominy, plain 
macaroni, string beans, asparagus tops or fresh 
peas. For dessert: Rice pudding, corn-starch 
pudding, junket, baked or stewed apples, prune- 
pulp, sliced oranges, tapioca and apple, or any 
stewed fresh fruit or simple pudding. 

Supper: Milk, weak cocoa, milk toast, bread 
and butter, stewed fruit. 

Quantity 

A healthy child may be allowed to satisfy 
his appetite at each meal, but must be taught 
^ chew his food thoroughly and to eat slowly. 



THE WELL CHILD 127 

This is one of the hardest lessons to teach the 
growing child, but unless he overcomes his 
natural tendency to bolt his food, and learns 
how to eat quietly, he is sure to suffer in more 
ways than one, and to have his development 
materially retarded by a faulty digestion. 

Eating between meals 

There is one rule which the wise mother 
never allows herself to break. It is the rule 
which forbids all dainties between meals. A 
lump of sugar, a piece of candy, a biscuit at the 
wrong time, may upset the child's appetite com- 
pletely, and ought not be allowed where the im- 
portance and the regularity of the meal-time 
is appreciated. Even a piece of bread between 
meals should be forbidden. By having a strict 
rule of this kind, the child comes to the table 
hungry, and leaves it only after having par- 
taken of a full meal. To take the edge off the 
appetite by a sweet of some kind does not 
allay real hunger, and the child will feel it later 
on. Though unable to eat at the prescribed 
time, he will be faint with hunger before the 
next meal arrives, unless by the importunity of 
an unwise parent he is able to again spoil his 
appetite by partaking of another surreptitious 
meal. 



128 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Articles forbidden children under four 

(With few exceptions, they may be withheld 
advantageously until the child is six or seven. ) 

Meats: Ham, pork, sausage, corned beef, 
dried beef, game, kidney, meat stews, liver 
and bacon. 

Vegetables: Cabbage, carrots, fried vege- 
tables of any kind, onions, radishes, raw celery, 
lettuce, cucumbers, raw or cooked tomatoes, 
beets, egg plant and green corn. 

Desserts: All nuts, candies, pies, tarts and 
pastry; hot bread and griddle cakes; rich 
cakes, jellies and preserves. 

Drinks: Tea, coffee, wine, beer, cider, and 
all alcoholic drinks. 

Fruits: All fruits that are out of season; 
bananas ; all canned and preserved fruits. 

Lack of appetite 

Under no circumstances should a child be 
forced to eat. If no appetite is shown, there 
is every reason to suspect that the child is not 
perfectly well, in which case to urge and force 
him to eat would be the greatest mistake. If 
your child shows no inclination for his food, 
first examine it carefully, to be sure that it is 



THE WELL CHILD 129 

properly prepared, and then find out if he has 
been eating between meals. If his food is ap- 
petizingly cooked and he has had nothing since 
his last meal, and still shows repeatedly no in- 
clination to eat, there is surely something 
wrong, and it would be wise to consult the doc- 
tor. Do not give sweets or candies to the child 
who has a poor appetite. If simple food is re- 
fused, it is unwise to offer something in- 
digestible to tempt the appetite. When the 
child is hungry he will eat, and until that time 
comes, forcing and urging or tempting him 
will do very little good. 

But you must remember that there is a great 
difference in children's appetites. One of the 
most robust children I have known goes to 
school daily on a glass of milk and one slice of 
toast, while the other children of the family 
eat porridge, eggs, potatoes, rolls and cocoa. 
Yet she is the sturdiest of the lot. It is often 
hard to make diet rules for this reason. A 
small appetite is different from a poor appetite, 
however, and there is nothing in a small ap- 
petite to cause any alarm, whereas when a 
child who habitually eats largely suddenly fails 
and loses his appetite, it is usually an indication 
that his condition is in some way below par. 
Do not urge such a child to eat. Correct his 



130 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

physical condition first, whatever it may need ; 
see that he has regular exercise, and be sure 
that his food is prepared as daintily as possible. 
Give it to him only at the stated intervals, and 
never allow him to eat between meals. 

A few recipes for the growing child 

Stezved Prunes: Stew the prunes until quite 
soft and then rub them through a coarse sieve. 
Put this pulp back in the water in which the 
fruit was cooked and add a little molasses — 
enough to sweeten it — and let it cook for 
about ten minutes. 

Baked apple: Choose a large juicy apple. 
Pare and core. Bake until thoroughly soft, 
and then strain and sweeten. 

Chicken broth: Remove the skin and fat 
from a small chicken and chop it all up into 
small pieces — bones and all. Add salt. Add 
a quart of boiling water, cover and simmer for 
two hours. Then allow it to stand for one 
hour, still covered, after which strain through 
a sieve. 

Blanc mange: Gelatine, ]/ 2 ounce; water, ]/ 2 
pint; cream, I pint; white sugar, 3 ounces; 
vanilla. Dissolve the gelatine in the water by 
means of heat. Whip the cream, sugar and 
vanilla together. While the gelatine solution is 



THE WELL CHILD 131 

still warm pour in the cream and beat till quite 
stiff. Then pour into moulds. 

Junket and egg: Add two eggs, beaten to a 
froth and sweetened with 4 teaspoonfuls of 
sugar to the pint of milk. Curdle with essence 
of pepsin or with junket tablets. Pour into 
cups. 

Rice-milk: 

Rice 2 tablespoon fuls 

Cornstarch 1 teaspoonful 

Milk 2 pints 

Boil in a farina boiler until each grain of the 
rice is well cooked. It should be of a creamy 
color. 

Chocolate blanc mange: 

Granulated sugar J4 CU P 

Granulated tapioca *4 c up 

Salt Y\ teaspoonful 

Hot chocolate iy 2 cups 

Vanilla J4 teaspoonful 

Mix tapioca, sugar and salt ; pour on gradually 
the hot cocoa and cook in a double boiler 
about 20 minutes. Remove from the fire and 
add vanilla. Pour into cold moulds. Serve 
with cream or custard. 






132 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Orange jelly: 

Shredded gelatine y 2 box 

Cold water y 2 cup 

Juice of one lemon. 

Boiling water 2 cups 

Sugar 1 cup 

Orange juice 1 cup 

Soak the gelatine in the cold water half an hour. 
Add the boiling water and dissolve. Then 
add sugar and fruit juice, strain through a very 
fine strainer or a cloth into moulds, and set 
away to harden. 

Rice Jelly: 

Rice 1^2 tablespoonfuls 

Cold water 1 cup 

Salt a pinch 

Milk 2-3 cup 

The white of one egg. 

Wash the rice and soak in cold water for two 
hours. Drain off the water and add the milk. 
Cook in a double boiler for an hour and a half. 
Strain through a fine sieve. Pour into moulds. 
Serve very cold with cream and sugar. 



CHAPTER VII 

DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 

In a general way I have spoken elsewhere in 
this book upon the subject of nursing and 
sick-room hygiene. There are a few points, 
that need additional emphasis, however, and a 
few suggestions still to be made concerning 
the nursing of contagious diseases, disinfect- 
ants, fumigation, and the care and protection 
of others in the infected house. 

There are a number of diseases common to 
childhood, and few mothers are so fortunate 
as to escape a visitation from one or more of 
them. It is wise to know beforehand the 
early symptoms of such diseases, and how much 
fumigation is necessary when they are over; 
also the term of isolations required. In this 
chapter I will outline the most common of the 
diseases of childhood to aid the mother in 
making a prompt diagnosis, leaving the medical 
treatment entirely to the physician. 

133 



134 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Points to be observed in nursing a contagious 

disease 

The first thing to do is to remove from the 
room everything that cannot be thoroughly fu- 
migated when the illness is over. It is often 
thought best not to use a mattress, but to cover 
the wire spring of the bed with several old 
comfortables which make a very soft couch 
and have the advantage of forming a highly 
sanitary bed, easily fumigated after the im- 
provised bedding is destroyed. During scarlet 
fever or diphtheria the floor and woodwork of 
the sick room should be wiped up every day 
with a wet cloth which has been soaked in a 
strong disinfectant. Bichloride of mercury 
tablets, one tablet being dissolved in a pint 
of water, are usually ordered for this pur- 
pose by the physician, who will also direct 
how they are to be used. While handling dis- 
infectants, the mother must wear rubber gloves. 
She should also wear a mob-cap whenever she 
is in the sick room, for it is particularly easy to 
carry the germs in the hair. When she goes 
out to take her daily exercise, she must change 
all her clothes, even to her shoes, having a 
fresh set of garments just outside the patient's 
room. If this precaution is taken, she can go 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 135 

out with comparative safety, though it is better 
for her not to go into other parts of the house, 
but rather directly out of doors. 

All bedding and soiled clothes belonging both 
to the patient and the mother must be soaked 
overnight in a disinfectant solution, then 
placed in a bag which has also been wrung out 
in the same solution. They should be lowered 
out the window to the laundress. These 
clothes, when boiled for an hour before being 
washed, cannot possibly carry the infection. 
An excellent preparation for this purpose is 
made as follows: 

Sulphate of zinc 8 ounces 

Carbolic acid I ounce 

Water 3 gallons 

This solution, or the bichloride tablets, must 
also be freely used in all the utensils about the 
sick room. When the patient is well and ready 
to leave the room, he must have a disinfectant 
bath, the mother also going through the same 
process. This must be followed by a soap and 
water bath. Then the room may be fu- 
migated. To do this, all the crevices, fire- 
place and windows must be stopped up — 
even the key-hole. The substance that is to 
be used, usually a formaldehyde candle, must 



136 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

then be ignited, and the room remain undis- 
turbed for twenty-four hours. After the 
room is aired and cleaned, it should be re- 
papered and repainted if the case has been a 
highly contagious one, otherwise it is suffi- 
cient precaution to wipe the walls (if painted) 
with a solution of chloride of lime (one ounce 
to the pint), or of carbolic acid (one drachm 
to the pint), and then scrub them with soap 
and water. Toys or books that have been 
used during the disease must be burned, as 
there is always great danger surrounding 
them. 

Bichloride of mercury and carbolic acid, the 
disinfectants which are almost always ordered 

ml 

in nursing contagious diseases, are both deadly 
poison, and should be used only as directed 
by the physician who is in charge of the case. 
The tablets for making the bichloride solution 
should be kept in a locked drawer; and any of 
the solution that is left over emptied at once. 
The carbolic acid should also be under lock and 
key. 

All dishes used by the patient should be dis- 
infected and boiled before they are taken from 
the sick room. Never give delicacies or food 
that has been standing in the sick room to 
other persons, nor is it safe to carry flowers 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 137 

or books from the sick room into other parts 
of the house. 

Scarlet fever 

The period when children are most suscep- 
tible to scarlet fever is between two and ten 
years of age. It takes from two to seven 
days, after exposure, for the disease to de- 
velop, — if seven days elapse after the exposure, 
and there are no signs of disease, the child 
may be considered safe. It usually begins 
with a very red throat, fever, and vomiting. 
If these symptoms ever appear in a child he 
should be isolated at once and a rash watched 
for. If there is no appearance of rash in two 
days, he may be released. Sometimes the rash 
comes first. It is a safe rule always to isolate 
at once a child who develops a rash until a 
physician's diagnosis can be secured. The rash 
of scarlet fever can never be mistaken for that 
of measles. Scarlet fever rash is a fine bright 
rash, or blush, granular in appearance: draw 
the finger across the chest and it will leave a 
white track. The throat is also inflamed, with 
white patches. The rash first appears on the 
neck and chest. It spreads thence to the face 
and abdomen. The rash is at its worst a 
few days after the first symptoms, and the 



138 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

patient's hands and feet sometimes become 
swollen. He is conscious of a tingling sting- 
ing ache all over the surface of his body. It 
is when the rash subsides and begins to u peel " 
that the contagion is most likely to spread. As 
the patient is usually recovering at this time 
the mother or nurse is likely to become less 
vigilant. She must not let up in her care for 
one instant, for, though her patient may be 
convalescent, he is still capable of causing the 
disease to spread. 

Scarlet fever is dreaded more for its pos- 
sible complications, than for the effects of the 
disease proper. It needs the most careful 
nursing, for it may be followed by innumer- 
able affections of the kidneys, heart, eyes, ears 
and lungs. Therefore, when the patient seems 
to be recovering, is the time of all others for 
the mother to double her watchfulness. She 
should send for the physician should the slight- 
est change occur, and the physician must be the 
one to decide when it is safe for the child to 
leave his room, and when the house is to be 
fumigated. 

Measles 

To the average healthy child under twelve, 
measles usually appears to be of little con- 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 139 

sequence. It must, however, be intelligently 
nursed because of its extreme infectiousness, 
and also because there is always a danger of 
the child's eyes, ears or lungs becoming in- 
volved, and such an involvement not infre- 
quently ends in death. 

The first symptoms of measles are very much 
like those of a bad cold. There is running at 
the nose, also at the eyes, and frequent cough- 
ing. At this early stage the disease is most 
contagious, and if the child, even before he is 
really ill, coughs and sneezes in a room-full of 
other children it is not likely that anyone of 
them will escape the infection. The mother 
must be on the alert for these early symptoms 
of measles and be ready at a moment's notice 
to isolate her child. The rash of measles 
comes upon the fourth day of the fever, ten to 
fourteen days after infection. It is first no- 
ticed on the face and behind the ears — 
sometimes on the neck. If one of a large 
family of children becomes ill with measles, it 
is a mistake to send the well children into other 
homes, hoping in this way to save them from 
infection. They have been already exposed to 
the disease in its most contagious stage, and 
should remain at home, for it is more than 
likely that they will be taken down with it 



140 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

while away — thus infecting other households 
and causing an epidemic. In measles, isolate 
the sick child at once, but keep the other mem- 
bers of the house at home, that is, if they 
have been exposed to the first stages of the 
disease. It is three weeks before the patient is 
free from all traces of measles. After that 
period of time has elapsed, he may return to 
the family life, after a thorough disinfecting 
of his person, his room, and his belongings. 

Diphtheria 

The early symptoms of diphtheria are high 
fever, prostration, swelling of the throat, some- 
times loss of voice, and a certain kind of patch 
upon the throat which looks like a slight gray 
streak across the tonsil. It is of the greatest 
importance that there should be no delay in 
summoning the physician — antitoxin, one of 
the greatest of recent medical discoveries, if it 
can be administered in the first stages of the 
disease, causes it to lose many of its terrors. 
The germ of diphtheria is supposed only to 
be carried in the discharges from the throat, 
mouth and nose of an infected person. These 
germs, or bacilli, will not develop in the direct 
ravs of the sun, or in fresh air. Poor ventila- 
tion and impure air are what they depend upon 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 141 

for their nourishment. This is why the disease 
is so much more prevalent among the tenement 
districts and poorer classes — and it is a strong 
argument in favor of plenty of fresh air in 
our homes. 

If a membranous patch is discovered in a 
child's throat, or he has a bloody discharge 
from the nose, he should be promptly isolated 
until a physician's diagnosis can be procured. 
Everyone who has been exposed to the con- 
tagion should use an antiseptic gargle (Dobell's 
Solution or Listerine). Every precaution must 
be taken to prevent the disease from spread- 
ing, for it is one of the gravest of all the con- 
tagious diseases. The patient should receive 
the best care and nursing, for it is often fol- 
lowed by serious complications. Pneumonia 
is frequent, paralysis of the eyes causing tem- 
porary blindness, heart failure and anaemia. 
It is one of the most fatal of all diseases. 

Whooping-cough 

Whooping-cough develops from six to four- 
teen days after exposure to infection. Children 
under one year are particularly susceptible to 
it and are usually very seriously ill, often fa- 
tally so when they develop it at this early age. 
Older children are not nearly so acutely ill, 



142 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

though it is one of the most trying of all the 
diseases of childhood. It lasts for three or 
four months, and during the greater part of 
that time the child must be isolated — at least 
isolated from all other children who have not 
had the disease. It is very difficult to diagnose. 
The first symptoms are like those of an ordin- 
ary cold, with slight fever. The cough, in- 
stead of diminishing, slowly increases, until the 
attacks are very often so severe as to be like 
paroxysms. These are attended with a draw- 
ing in of the breath (the whoop) vomiting, red- 
ness of the face and often partial strangulation 
for several minutes. To test whether or not 
the suspected disease is whooping cough, put a 
spoon handle far back in the child's throat and 
depress the tongue for a moment or two. If 
the trouble is whooping-cough, the paroxysm 
will be immediately brought on. This test, if 
repeated several times, though it is not in- 
fallible, is usually found to be correct. A sim- 
ple cough will not be affected at all by this test. 
The spoon used for this purpose must be 
washed in boiling water, as it would surely 
carry the infection should the trouble develop 
into whooping-cough. 

The acute stages of whooping-cough usually 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 143 

last about four weeks. Pneumonia must be 
guarded against all through it. Good nourish- 
ment and fresh air are what the child needs — 
to keep up his general health. Medicine is of 
little good. Particularly should no advertised 
drug be given. The mother should be most 
conscientious in her warnings. She should tell 
all other nurses and children not to come too 
near, and keep hers entirely isolated when 
out of doors. If a child is heard nearby in 
such a severe spasm of coughing that it re- 
sembles whooping-cough, cover your own 
child's head with a shawl or handkerchief and 
hurry him out of the way. Prompt action 
under such conditions may save him from in- 
fection. 

It is not necessary to fumigate after whoop- 
ing-cough. Constant airing of the rooms 
should be insisted upon all through the disease. 
It is not usually practicable to keep the child 
isolated from the members of his own family, 
for he must have exercise, fresh air, and the 
freedom of the house, but he must be strictly 
isolated from all outsiders, and particularly 
from all other children. The diet needs most 
careful attention, and if at any time he should 
lose his meal by vomiting during the parox- 



Hi THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

ysms of a coughing spell he should be fed 
again. It is well for the child to be under the 
care of a physician. 

Mumps 

Mumps is usually said to be carried only by 
direct contact, it is therefore probably the least 
infectious of all the contagious diseases. It 
requires two to three weeks to develop. The 
first symptoms are pain and swelling below the 
lobe of the ear. There is also great pain in 
moving the jaw. One side is usually infected 
first, the other following in a few days. The 
swelling lasts about eight days, but the child 
should not be released from quarantine for 
three weeks after it has subsided, for there 
is still danger of communicating it to others. 
There are usually no complications connected 
with mumps — fatalities being practically un- 
known. Children are most susceptible from 
four to fourteen years of age. A piece of 
flannel, heated and bound about the throat 
greatly relieves the pain, and the child should 
gargle several times daily with a mild solu- 
tion of listerine and water. No solid food 
should be given while the fever lasts. It is 
not necessary to fumigate after mumps. 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 145 

Chicken-pox 

Chicken-pox may be carried by a third per- 
son as well as given by direct contact. The 
disease takes eight to sixteen days to develop, 
and at the second day of the fever a rash is 
seen upon the back and abdomen. It is most 
common in children up to six years. The 
cases are rarer as the children advance in years. 
The duration is usually from ten days to two 
weeks, but may last a month if the attack is se- 
vere. It is not a dangerous disease, but highly 
contagious, and the child must be isolated. 
He must not be allowed to scratch the vesi- 
cles which appear during the progress of the 
disease, for if he does he is likely to receive 
marks that will be life-scars. The body 
should be bathed every day, the severe spots 
of rash being treated with carbolized vaseline. 
The diet should be very light, and the rooms 
disinfected, though fumigation is not neces- 
sary. 

Bruises 

Cold acts upon the blood-vessels, contracts 
them, and prevents the elements of the blood 
from entering the surrounding tissues and be- 
coming discolored there. Either a cold com- 



146 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

press, or a piece of ice, therefore, should be 
applied as soon as a child has been bruised. 
Witch hazel is also an excellent remedy. A 
bruise upon the head may entail serious con- 
sequences to a young child and should be 
treated at once. There is no virtue in any of 
the favorite home remedies such as butter, an 
oyster or plaintain leaves, or rather no other 
virtue than that which lies in the fact that 
they are cold. 

Fractures 

If there has been an accident and a broken 
limb is the result, two persons should lift the 
child — one supporting the injured portion of 
the body so that it may not be jarred or 
further twisted out of place. He should be 
put at once upon a bed, and the limb laid out 
upon a soft wide pillow. Nothing further 
should be attempted until the physician arrives. 
Have hot water ready, and whiskey, which 
may be administered in small doses if the child 
grows faint. 

Cuts 

In trifling cuts, the wound should be thor- 
oughly washed with hot water, and the flow of 
blood checked by pressure or by a few grains 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 147 

of alum dissolved in water. Then press the 
edges firmly together and put several small 
strips of adhesive plaster across them to hold 
them in place. A deep cut requires the atten- 
tion of a surgeon at once. When an artery 
is severed, the blood is scarlet, and flows in 
jets, or spurts. This should be checked by 
pressure on the vessel above the injured spot. 
When a vein is cut the blood is dark in color 
and flows continuously. This should be 
stopped by pressure below the injury. To 
make a firm pressure, tie a handkerchief around 
the limb, place a stick in the knot, and turn it 
until the blood ceases to flow. 

Burns 

As the pain attending even a slight burn is 
almost unbearable, the first thing to do is to 
give instant relief — all thoughts of healing 
are secondary. To give relief apply at once 
a saturated solution of baking soda. Then 
cover the burned portion with fresh lard or 
cosmoline and wrap it around with a dressing 
of cotton batting. Should the clothing stick 
anywhere to the burn, cut around it, and leave 
the sore untouched. To tear the clothes away 
would cause great injury to the flesh. If the 
burns are severe and much space is involved, 



148 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

cover the burned area with sheets of cotton and 
call a physician at once, as the patient often 
succumbs, and always needs most prompt at- 
tention when the excitement is over. 

Stings 

When a child is stung by an insect, look at 
the swelling to see if the sting is still in it. If 
so, remove it with a pair of tweezers, or by 
pressing upon both sides of the wound. After 
this put a drop of aromatic spirits of ammonia 
or cologne upon it. Should the sting become 
very painful, or swell very much, a flaxseed 
poultice should be applied for a few hours until 
relieved. 

Bleeding from the nose 

To stop bleeding from the nose, put the child 
upon his bed propped up with pillows. Press 
very firmly upon the nose between the eyes. If 
the bleeding continues, stop up the nostril with 
a bit of absorbent cotton saturated with a 
solution of alum and hot water. Putting the 
feet into a hot mustard bath, or a piece of ice 
applied to the forehead or back of the neck 
are also ways of stopping obstinate cases of 
nose-bleeding. It must be checked as soon as 
possible, for it is very weakening, and the child 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 149 

who is subject to it should not be allowed to 
play violently or become over-excited. The 
nasal chambers should be examined by an ex- 
pert physician. 

Cold with high fever 

Give the child a mustard foot bath as hot 
as he can bear upon going to bed. Let him 
sit on the edge of the bed upon a blanket 
which is entirely wrapped about his feet — 
tub and all. Put two tablespoons ful of mus- 
tard in the bath, and keep pouring in hot water, 
as much as he can stand at a time. After 
twenty minutes wrap his legs in a hot flannel, 
or bath towel, and bundle him into bed. Dry 
him carefully under the covers. Rub his chest 
with camphorated oil and give him a hot drink 
of weak lemonade to induce perspiration. A 
little vaseline in his nose is helpful. If he is 
not better the next day, send for the doctor. 

A chill 

A chill usually precedes a serious condition, 
and a physician should be summoned at once. 
Put the child in bed surrounded by hot water 
bags. A mustard plaster may be placed upon 
the abdomen, and whiskey and water given 
frequently in small doses. Give no food until 



150 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

advice from the physician is obtained — unless 
he should be greatly delayed in arriving. If 
food is necessary, give only the lightest mix- 
ture of milk and water, or whey. 

Foreign bodies 

Be very careful of foreign bodies that may 
enter the child's eye, nose or mouth. If there 
is a speck of dust or a cinder in the eye, pull 
the upper lid forward and down, allowing it 
to brush the low r er eyelashes as it falls back 
in place. The child must look up as you do 
this. Tears will often float the cinder off, and 
they may be allowed to collect in the eye by 
pressing the lids together for a few moments. 
Never touch the eye with anything that is not 
perfectly clean, nor until you have washed 
your hands. If the eye has received any 
serious injury, do not lose a moment but 
obtain the advice of a specialist at once. Never 
apply fruit, tea leaves or vegetable poultices 
to the eye. The virtues of these favorite 
domestic remedies lies in the fact that they 
are carriers of heat and cold — the evils they 
cause may lead in a few hours to incurable 
blindness if not destruction of the eye. In- 
flammation of the eyes can be controlled by the 
use of clean cold or hot water compresses, 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 151 

changed repeatedly every minute or two for a 
half hour, three or four times a day. 

If a foreign substance has become lodged 
in the ear, extreme caution must be used in 
removing it. First see if the object will drop 
out, by bending the child's head over and 
pulling the ear upward and backward. If 
this does not succeed, try to wash the substance 
away with a warm syringe. If an insect has 
entered the ear, drop in a few drops of gly- 
cerine or olive oil. An old-fashioned way — 
very effective too — is to dip a camel's hair 
brush in strong mucilage and touch the foreign 
body with it, allowing it to harden there. 
When thoroughly adhered, gently pull away the 
brush and the obstruction will come also. If 
on close examination the object appears tightly 
wedged, it is best not to tamper with it, or to 
try any experiments, but to take the child at 
once to a specialist. 

To remove a foreign body from a child's 
nose, close the opposite nostril, and cause him 
to blow; or better still, if possible try to make 
him sneeze. Should this fail it is best to con- 
sult the doctor. Do not lose any time when 
you are once certain that there is an obstruc- 
tion in the nose. 

If a foreign substance — a coin or button, 



152 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

for example — is swallowed, never give an 
emetic. The risk is great in so doing of caus- 
ing it to lodge in the throat. There is usually 
little to fear unless the substance swallowed 
should be sharp or pointed. If so, give the 
child solid food — bread, potatoes, oatmeal — 
which will surround the object, whatever it 
may be, and carry it safely through the intes- 
tines. If the foreign substance lodges in the 
throat, and the child chokes, turn him upside 
down and slap him between the shoulders. If 
it does not fall out, try to find it by inserting 
your finger — dislodge it if possible, even if 
you are unable to draw it out. 

What the Emergency Chest should hold 

A clinical thermometer. 

A fine pair of tweezers. 

An ice bag. 

A hot water bag. 

Scissors. 

Ear syringe. 

Small children's bulb syringe. 

Throat atomizer. 

Glass tube for feeding. 

Glass drinking cup with spout. 

A large quantity of absorbent cotton. 

Several rolls of 2-inch gauze bandages. 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 153 

Spool of adhesive plaster, 2-inch wide. 

Court plaster. 

Safety pins. 

Unbleached muslin to serve as a sling. 

Package of sterile gauze. 

Dobell's or other alkaline solution. 

Bicarbonate of soda. 

Vaseline. 

Whiskey. 

Aromatic spirits of ammonia. 

Flaxseed poultice 

A flaxseed poultice is made by putting the 
flaxseed in a large china bowl, and adding 
boiling water, little by little, stirring all the 
time until the consistency is right. Then 
spread it about half an inch thick between two 
layers of muslin. Fold the edges of the mus- 
lin over, to keep the flaxseed from running 
out. 

Turpentine stupe 

A turpentine stupe is made by taking a piece 
of old flannel, wringing it out in hot water, 
and then sprinkling on it a few drops of spirits 
of turpentine. Cover it with oil silk while it is 
being applied. Remove it when the skin has 
the required irritation. 



154 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Bread poultice 

Fill a muslin bag with bread crumbs. Soak 
it tor a moment or two in boiling water, then 
squeeze it gently until it ceases to drip. Apply 
as hot as possible. 

Mustard plaster 

To make a mustard plaster, take a teaspoon- 
ful of mustard and three teaspoonfuls of flour. 
Mix them thoroughly on a plate. Add 
enough hot water to make a paste. Spread 
evenly upon a piece of muslin, and cover with 
a thin strip of gauze. Apply and do not re- 
move until the surface is quite red. 

Spice plaster 

Equal parts of ground ginger, cloves, cinna- 
mon, allspice and one-fourth part of cayenne 
pepper. Sew the whole in a small flannel bag. 
When the plaster is to be used sprinkle it with 
a few drops of whiskey, and apply it very hot. 
It may be used repeatedly. 

Importance of noticing early defects in 
children 

It is very important to notice as early as 
possible any defect that may be present in your 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 155 

child, so that by recognizing it, and, if possible, 
by correcting it, he may be saved from what 
would otherwise prove a serious handicap to 
his development. Nothing handicaps a child 
so hopelessly as to be without the full use of 
all his natural faculties. The mother's eye is 
sometimes the last to see such a condition, 
and therefore many months — even years — 
are lost, during which the child might have 
been undergoing treatment, or studying how to 
correct his deficiency, whatever it may happen 
to be. 

Eyesight 

Children suffer mentally more than they do 
physically, when their vision is poor and is 
allowed to remain uncorrected. 

One of the " bad boys " in a public school 
not long ago, was found by the examining 
physician to be in need of glasses. As soon 
as his deficiency was corrected, he picked up 
in his lessons, and steadily advanced toward 
the top of his class. Lack of the proper 
vision had made him backward, and as soon as 
it was remedied, he began to advance. His 
" badness " disappeared before the absorbing 
interest of a world that he had never rightly 
seen before. 



156 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Every child who is old enough to go to school 
should have his eyes examined as a matter of 
precaution. Many children are unjustly called 
" stupid," " backward," " queer " because they 
are unable to see, and for no other reason. 
It is doing an innocent child an irreparable in- 
jury to allow false pride and hatred of the 
" horrid glasses " to step in and prevent his 
receiving the proper attention at your hands 
when he shows signs, however faint, of need- 
ing it. Eye strain will soon make a child 
nervous, irritable, peevish, and even in some 
instances incorrigible. He will also become 
mentally deficient, for he will be unable to 
keep up with his class. Before branding a 
child as " stupid," take him to an oculist and 
have his eyes examined. The result will prob- 
ably hold great surprises, and your ugly duck- 
ling may turn out to be a swan after all. 

Enlarged tonsils — Adenoids 

When the child shows difficulty in breath- 
ing, sleeps with his mouth open, and is much 
subject to cold and catarrh, it is probably be- 
cause there is an obstruction in the back of 
his throat or nose, or because his tonsils are 
enlarged. If a throat of this kind is not 
taken in time to the physician (who will either 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 157 

treat it or operate upon it) the result will 
be most unfortunate for the child. He will 
soon become " run down," pale, anaemic, and 
an easy prey to disease. A surgeon will have 
to decide upon the advisability of operating — 
many times it is not necessary — but it is the 
mother's duty to have the child examined be- 
fore the nasal or throat obstruction does its 
work and drags him too far below par to be 
easily re-instated. Thin, delicate, nervous- 
looking children are often made so by their in- 
flamed and constantly irritated throats. Local 
treatment, or operation, changes them as by a 
miracle, and they begin instantly to " pick up " 
in weight, health and spirits. 

Deafness 

Children may be quite deaf before the defect 
is noticed by their parents. When it does be- 
come apparent, no time should be lost, for this 
condition is sometimes very difficult to correct. 
If you think your child does not hear well, 
hold a watch — the usual man's watch — 
twenty inches from his ear. This is the proper 
distance, and if he cannot hear it until it is 
held much nearer, he should have attention at 
once. Deafness is often dependent upon the 
throat conditions, and deaf children are usually 



158 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

found to have large tonsils and adenoids. In 
some instances, however, it is the ear itself 
that is defective. In any case, the matter 
should receive prompt attention, for deafness 
is one of the greatest burdens a child can carry. 
It affects him morally as well as physically. 
He is likely to become slow, suspicious, back- 
ward, and, to the outsider who does not ap- 
preciate what he is struggling against, in- 
different. 

Stooping 

Try in every way to counteract in your child 
the tendency to stoop, as soon as he first shows 
it. Do not " nag " and worry him by con- 
stantly reproving and criticising. This will 
never effect what you wish. On the contrary, 
his fault is only likely to be accentuated. Try 
to encourage him to do better by an occasional 
compliment, and see that he is physically in 
good shape. Stooping is more often due to 
bodily weakness than it is the result of careless- 
ness. Strengthen the child by administering a 
good tonic. Send him to a gymnasium, and let 
him have weights in his room to pull every 
morning. Try a brace if all else fails, and 
should the symptoms be marked take him to a 
physician, for many children suffer greatly 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 159 

from curvature of the spine, which, often get- 
ting worse as they grow older, eventually 
amounts to a deformity. Build up the child's 
physique and consult a physician if he does 
not improve. Stooping is a condition that 
must be corrected at once, before it becomes 
a fixed habit. It may be due to near sighted- 
ness. 

Stammering 

Stammering is an affection easily cured in 
youth — impossible to correct as one advances 
in years. A child who stammers badly should 
receive treatment from some one who makes 
such treatment his specialty (there are schools 
in some cities for the correction of stammer- 
ing), for if he reaches manhood without hav- 
ing learned how to overcome his defect, it will 
then be too late. Stammering is sometimes 
due to nervousness, general debility, or depres- 
sion after illness. Children who have been ill 
will often stammer during convalescence, but 
will stop as soon as they have had a change of 
air, and have recovered their normal health. 
Stammering also may be caused by defects in 
the teeth, lips, tongue, or palate that a physi- 
cian is able to remedy. If your child stam- 
mers, first build up his general health, and, 



160 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

if possible, give him a change of air. If this 
does not prove sufficient, call in a physician 
and have a thorough examination made. Do 
not let the matter escape attention. Every 
day is important, for only in childhood can 
the defect be entirely overcome. 



Delicacies for the convalescent 

Beef tea 

To a pound of finely minced beef must be 
added a pint of cold water. Let this stand 
for an hour, stirring it occasionally. Put the 
vessel which contains this mixture into a 
saucepan of water and allow the water to boil 
gently for one hour. Strain, and flavor with a 
little salt. It will be seen to contain a fine 
sediment which should be taken with the liquid. 

Chicken jelly 

Clean a medium sized fowl, remove the 
skin and fat, chop it all very fine and place in 
a pan with two quarts of water. Heat slowly 
and skim several times. Let it simmer for 
about six hours, and add a little salt or parsley. 
When cool, skim off the fat. This may be 
served as a jelly or it may be heated. 



DISEASES OF CHILDHOOD 161 

Milk punch 

To a glass of milk add one teaspoonful of 
brandy or whiskey, a teaspoonful of sugar and 
a little nut-meg. Shake with a milk shaker and 
serve very cold. 

Egg-nog 

Beat the yolk of one egg thoroughly with 
a teaspoonful of brandy or whiskey, and add 
it to a glass of milk. On top of this mixture 
put the white of the egg beaten very stiff with 
pulverized sugar. Half an ounce of lime- 
water may be added if the digestion is weak. 

Oatmeal gruel 

Two tablespoon fuls of oatmeal, one salt- 
spoon of salt, one scant teaspoonful of sugar, 
one cupful of boiling water, one cupful of 
milk. First mix the oatmeal, salt and sugar 
together, and pour on the boiling water. Cook 
for thirty minutes, then strain through a fine 
wire strainer. Place again on the fire and 
add the milk, heat just to the boiling point, 
and serve hot. 



162 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

Arrowroot blanc mange 

Mix two tablespoonfuls of arrowroot with a 
little cold milk. Put a pint of milk on the fire 
and let it boil, then add the arrowroot paste. 
Flavor with sugar and vanilla or lemon, and 
stir until it thickens sufficiently. Pour into a 
mould. 

Whey 

Milk I pint 

Essence of pepsin ... .2 teaspoonfuls 

Heat the milk moderately and add the pepsin. 
When firm beat with a fork until the curd is 
entirely divided, after which strain. 

Diet for a child who is convalescing from a 

fever 

Breakfast: Poached or boiled egg, or cream 
toast. Cocoa. 

At m Milk punch, egg-nog, chicken or 
lamb broth. 

Dinner: Light soup, chicken, steak or chop, 
rice pudding, tapioca, or baked custard. 

At 4: Milk punch, egg-nog, or a cup of 
broth. 

Supper: Milk toast, watered toast buttered. 
Wine jelly or baked apples. Hot milk. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EXAMPLE OBEDIENCE THE CHILD'S QUES- 
TIONS. 

When the bewildering and delicious months 
of babyhood are past, and the child reaches the 
end of his second year, he begins to show the 
marks of personality that will shadow him 
throughout his life. The world is wonderful, 
full of discoveries, and knowledge; he strives 
with all his tiny might to get what he wants. 
He has tasted the fruit of the forbidden tree, 
he knows good from evil. He has also found 
out the parental weak spots, and hourly he is 
acquiring the dangerous knowledge of how to 
use them for his own ends ! 

Seeing all this, the mother realizes that she 
has come face to face for the first time with 
the problems surrounding her child's individ- 
uality. Hovering about him are the faint 
shadowings of inherited traits — a vague con- 
tinent only half defined, from which, never- 
theless, strange impulses and suggestions reach 
him as his life unfolds. But for these in- 

163 



164 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

herited tendencies, the mother has entirely in 
her own hands the great task of directing what 
is to be written by life and experience upon 
her child's mind. 

Parents, whether they will or not, have to 
accept this responsibilty, for in the first few 
years of his life the child sees everything 
through their eyes, and all that he finds out 
about the mysteries and wonders of existence 
will be found out with but few exceptions from 
them alone. Example, however we may shrink 
from admitting it, is the secret of parental in- 
fluence. Stronger than all the sermons ever 
preached, more powerful than the severest flog- 
ging, example has brought about results in 
stubborn little hearts when everything else has 
failed; it is the keystone in the arch of home 
training without which all the other blocks re- 
fuse to hold, and fall away. 

What is the mother to do, who fully realizes 
her responsibilities, and who wishes to leave no 
stone unturned in her efforts to help her chil- 
dren to become good men and women? 

She owes them companionship. While they 
are still in their babyhood — and oh, how short 
a time it seems when looked back upon in after 
years — they need their mother's daily, hourly 
care. She must give it to them. No nurse, 



EXAMPLE AND OBEDIENCE 165 

howeyer faithful, can entirely take her place. 
The mother has only a few short years to do 
her work in, for the greedy world is waiting 
just outside the nursery door to take the child 
and his only half -discovered treasures away 
from her forever. She must be quick to study 
the individual characteristics of each child as 
they begin to unfold. With one hand she must 
be constantly preparing the ground, protecting 
her children from nervous and physical strain, 
and building up for them strong bodies. With 
the other, she must just as continually plant 
the seeds that are to fashion and control their 
higher life. 

It is wise for every mother, very early in 
her career, to take a serious look into her own 
nature; for her smallest action, be it wise or 
foolish, will sink with astounding rapidity into 
the receptive minds of her children. The 
mother who wishes to obtain the best results 
will try earnestly to control her own actions, 
knowing that to the child's passionate loyalty 
and his genius for imitation, personal goodness 
in his own mother will be more than half the 
battle toward the cultivation of the same 
virtues in himself. 

Every mother wishes to have a noble son, but 
few mothers realize that such sons are made 



166 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

in the nursery, and that even by his third birth- 
day the baby-child begins to gather to himself 
the weakness or strength that is to mark his 
future self. She must begin to train and in- 
fluence him in the nursery, and from earliest 
babyhood she must impress upon him a few 
simple yet fundamental rules. The first lesson 
he must be taught is the great lesson of life — 
obedience. Obedience is the keynote of all the 
other virtues, which cling to it, and are built 
upon it. All that he becomes as he advances 
must depend for strength and color upon how 
perfectly he has learned it in his youth. 

Obedience 

As soon as the child begins to creep, his 
fingers fly unerringly toward what is bright. 
Soon he is able to draw himself up beside the 
table or the desk. From that moment there 
can be no peace in the family life until he is 
taught the value of obedience. For a while 
" you must " and " you must not " constitute 
the two-tone chord of his life. There is only 
one way to teach obedience, it is to be most 
careful in the matter of giving commands, to 
use the voice of authority so seldom that when 
it is heard the child capitulates without asking 
why. 



EXAMPLE AND OBEDIENCE 167 

But there are moments, and every parent 
meets them with a sinking heart, when the wills 
of mother and child come to a dead-lock. The 
command is given, obedience is refused, and 
they stand facing each other, with anxiety re- 
flected from the mother's face down into the 
tiny mirror wherein she looks, and trembling, 
sees herself. There is nothing then but a 
sterner repetition of the command, and quick 
retribution if it is not obeyed. 

The question of how and when to punish 
every mother must decide for herself. There 
is no doubt but that corporal punishment is 
sometimes followed by serious consequences to 
the character of the child, often arousing noth- 
ing but the very worst side of his nature. 

There are so many little ways of making a 
child " mind." A wise parent will try every 
appeal to his better nature first, and use a hun- 
dred pleasant devices in her efforts to reach his 
reason and bring about a willing rather than a 
compulsory obedience. When all these fail, 
and the wills of both mother and child clash 
hopelessly, there is but one possibility for the 
mother — the exaction of obedience, yea, 
though the heavens themselves seem falling 
about her ears. 

There are many simple ways of chastising 



168 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

children that appeal more to the views of the 
modern parent, and are quite as efficient as the 
old-fashioned corporal punishment without 
which it was in other days thought impossible to 
properly bring up a child. For instance, put- 
ting to bed, tying to a chair, fastening one hand 
behind the back, or depriving him of some 
coveted toy or privilege. When the child is still 
in the white heat of passion it is best for the 
mother to take the way of least resistance 
until the worst of the temper is spent. If 
she shows no anger herself, and carries the 
child away, where he can be alone until his 
agony of mind is over, she will find that it is 
then possible for her to make that appeal to his 
reason which will teach him in a way no 
violent punishment at the time of rebellion 
possibly can. The child feels his own position 
very keenly when he loses his self-control. To 
aggravate his misery by blows or commands, 
when he is not in the physical condition to 
understand them, seldom brings any good 
result. 

One of the secrets of gaining prompt obedi- 
ence from children is to make very few matters 
points of contention. To overlook continually 
is what the most successful mother does. In 
this way she puts off the evil hour of conflict 



EXAMPLE AND OBEDIENCE 169 

by nursery diplomacy of the most finished 
kind. 

A child who is treated in this way, very 
soon learns what is meant by the tone of com- 
mand, so seldom used by his parents, that it 
has kept all the undimmed luster of its first 
dignity. 

To be successful in exacting obedience there 
must be no threats, nor must anything be 
offered the child in the way of a bribe. A 
wise mother will shun both as unworthy the 
high calling of her motherhood. 

After having given due consideration to the 
nature of her baby's temperament, the mother 
must carefully make out and follow a well 
defined plan of treatment. The child must be 
made to realize, perhaps by a few sharp les- 
sons at the beginning, that punishment after 
disobedience is as inevitable as the rising sun, 
and that a command once seriously given is 
never revoked. 

When the child has learned the absolute 
necessity of obedience, one of life's greatest 
lessons has been learned. Everything that 
follows, taught both at home and at school, is 
founded upon the first lesson of obedience, 
which lesson half learned or badly learned is 
the worst preparation for life a child can pos- 



170 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

sibly have. If he obeys cheerfully and will- 
ingly he is always welcome. Outsiders very 
soon feel the power that has been given him 
by his home training, and respect him without 
always knowing why. 

In order, then, to exact prompt obedience, 
a mother must be willing to overlook much 
when necessary. Much overlooking of small 
faults, combined with a few decided battles; 
an absence of wavering in the parent, with 
quick retribution when it is inevitable. These, 
distributed at the hands of a wise and sympa- 
thetic mother will soon teach the youngest 
child obedience, the first great lesson of his life. 

We seldom realize how very quick children 
are to grasp a situation, to know just when 
and where they can take advantage, and just 
when it is advisable to capitulate. There is 
nothing more utterly demoralizing to the 
young mother than her first efforts to control 
a lusty, passionate, wilful, adorable child. 

But the mother must realize at the begin- 
ning of each day that patience is of more value 
to her than hours of nervous effort, and that 
cheerfulness in herself will wonderfully bright- 
en the road that the little feet have to travel. 
" Don'ts " come up so quickly to a mother's 
lips ! It is surprising how many " don'ts " are 



EXAMPLE AND OBEDIENCE 171 

said every day to children who are really 
doing nothing in the least harmful to them- 
selves or to other people. If a child is pro- 
vided with toys, and a place of his own in 
which to play, there will probably be small 
occasion for commands of any sort. He will 
amuse himself for hours at a time, and be far 
happier than when contending with the tem- 
peraments — or shall we say the tempers of 
his elders? 

The child's questions 

At three years of age, the normal child 
should walk and run with perfect ease, have cut 
all his first teeth, eat regularly and almost 
as older children eat, and talk a great deal. 
His mind is just beginning to assert itself and 
guess its own powers. He is able to reason a 
little, draw conclusions, listen to stories, " make 
belie ve," and play with his toys intelligently. 
His conversation, though it often seems un- 
intelligible, appears so chiefly because his power 
of speech lags so far behind his mental pic- 
tures, and he is unable to keep pace with them 
in words. The child's mind makes enormous 
strides between three and five, and we can 
often see the light and shadow of impressions 
and emotions passing over his face so quickly 



172 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

that they are gone before he has been able to 
find one word with which to interpret or com- 
municate them. 

After three the child begins to ask questions. 
Here again is the mother's great opportunity. 
By answering her child's questions she un- 
consciously controls his point of view and 
directs his nascent powers. It is nothing short 
of criminal to turn a deaf ear to the questions 
of a little child. As he climbs up into his 
mother's lap, or throws his arms around her 
neck, his lips invariably frame the same word, 
the eternal " why." Exactly according to the 
answers he receives will his development pro- 
gress. With every question that comes from 
his troubled little heart satisfactorily answered, 
the child takes a decided step onward into life. 
A careless, hurried or untrue answer causes 
him to fall backward, baffled and distrustful, a 
step behind the period of mental growth which 
prompted him to speak. 

We should remember that children have 
no way to learn but by questions. All the 
avenues which later on lead them toward the 
great world and the busy people in it, are still 
closed. As life — the rich, the mysterious, the 
perplexing — unrolls its pictured ribbon before 
them, they have no past experiences to draw 



EXAMPLE AND OBEDIENCE 173 

from, to help them to understand. They are 
very sensitive, they have no vocabulary in which 
to express themselves, the early development 
of their brain is such that they cannot put any 
but a disproportionate value upon the sights 
and sounds which puzzle them day by day. 
How, then, is the little child to fight against 
these odds — to gain knowledge of the appall- 
ing facts that rule destinies and events outside 
the nursery walls — how place himself in a 
position to cope with the overpowering and 
dominating personalities who know everything, 
and to whom he must be subject? Only by 
asking questions. 

And as the child gradually advances, and 
his spirit puts forth sturdy shoots toward life, 
his only true teacher, it is his mother who 
stands as go-between, and who has the serious 
duty of training this spiritual output, of help- 
ing him to a right understanding of himself, 
and of showing him how best to utilize the 
superabundance of energy which is his priceless 
gift. It is during those hours of close com- 
panionship, when the child asks "why " and 
the mother answers, that the gradual shaping 
of his ideals is accomplished, and the founda- 
tions laid for all that may develop of good in 
after years. 



174 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

With the beginnings of real growth will 
come many questions that are most difficult to 
meet. Yet if a child has enough intelligence 
to ask a question seriously, the person of whom 
the information is required has no right to 
withhold it. No child is too young to receive 
proper instruction upon any question that is 
puzzling his little brain, aad the very fact that 
he asks, makes a truthful answer the only kind 
that will satisfy him. Even if the informa- 
tion is only partially understood, the effort of 
the parent to explain, and the knowledge to the 
child that he has been taken seriously, inspires 
confidence, and contributes to his growth. 

The best guide for a mother, as this problem 
of how to answer her child's questions arises 
again and again in their daily life together, 
are these words of St. Paul : " Speak the truth 
in love." Mothers w r ho are willing to take 
the time to do this earnestly and prayerfully, 
will live to reap their reward. 

Never laugh at the child's questions. Laugh 
with the child, but not at him. He is very 
quick to realize the difference, and will join 
with you in a laugh at his own mistakes, when 
his keen perceptions and sensitiveness to ridi- 
cule cause him to shrink from being the object 
of a joke, even to his mother. How easily 



EXAMPLE AND OBEDIENCE 175 

children are wounded, and how quickly the 
eager look fades out of their little faces, and, 
curiously enough, how long a time it takes for 
them to become reassured and for confidence 
to be reinstated. The best training-school for 
the mind of a little child is in the garden of his 
mother's love. There, he can never loose his 
way, and there the highest fruits of his spirit 
will ripen gradually without forcing or effort. 
A mother who realizes this will close her child 
safe within her tenderest thoughts. She will 
welcome every question he asks, and answer 
truthfully, knowing that upon the wisdom of 
her answers, and upon her ability to satisfy 
his growing soul, the whole fabric of his after- 
life depends. 



CHAPTER IX 

BAD HABITS OF CHILDREN 

A child is not born with any of the bad habits 
common to childhood. He acquires the:;: : 
either through the ignorance of his mother, 
who does not realize that " it does any harm," 
or by a lack of moral courage in her that pre- 
vents her from pitting her will against his. thus 
stopping in him a suspicious tendency before it 
becomes hardened into a habit. 

A little moral courage and daily watchful- 
ness are all that is needed — but the rr 
must have both — to guard the new baby from 
falling a victim to anv of the unfortunate 
habits standing near at hand in the life of every 
little child. They wait with great persistence 
for the smallest opening through which to 
enter. Their object is to fasten themselves 
upon his weak susceptible nature, attack all 
his vulnerable points, and once having gained 
a foothold, they are likely to follow him 
through life. Only the child's mother, with 
her strong instincts and perceptive care for his 

176 



BAD HABITS 177 

well-being, can be his instrument of defense 
against their tyranny. Her insight first sees 
the undesirable tendency beginning to take root 
in his small being, and then conquers it for 
him by tact, perseverance, and common-sense. 
A word then to mothers, concerning the bad 
habits they are sure to meet in their daily ex- 
periences in the nursery, and of the best way 
to correct and overcome them once they are 
discerned. 

Disobedience 

As soon as the child walks and talks he 
develops a will. This individual will showing 
in her baby is one of the young mother's first 
surprises. He wishes to do things ; he moves 
forward to accomplish his desire ; he puts firmly 
aside her " Please don't, darling;" he disobeys. 
The stronger the child's character the more 
frequent are the domestic thunderstorms. 

Disobedience is more often the expression of 
an overwhelming desire in a little child to 
accomplish something of great importance in 
his eyes, than it is deliberate naughtiness. If 
the mother is not very watchful, however, of 
her own attitude toward his disobedience, she 
will soon find that it has developed into a habit, 
and that in childhood he puts aside her com- 



178 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

mands with the same indifference with which 
he disregarded the " Please don't " of his baby- 
hood. 

To guard against the habit of disobedience 
in her child, the mother must summon to her 
aid all the angels of tact, love, and insight. 
She realizes that a disobedient baby soon grows 
into a disobedient child, who in turn is soon a 
disobedient boy well started toward a lawless 
youth. There are two suggestions for the 
mother who would inculcate in her children the 
priceless gift of willing obedience. The first 
is to be very sparing of her " don'ts." To 
make very few points of conflict in the nursery, 
so that a command is never gffven unless backed 
by reason and judgment. The second sugges- 
tion is that w T hen such a point is once made, 
obedience, even at the point of the sword, shall 
be exacted instantly, and in full. 

Whining 

It is the mother alone who is responsible, in 
families where the children are continually 
whining. There is no characteristic more un- 
attractive in a child than that unfortunate habit 
so many of them possess, of uttering in a shrill 
monotone their lamentations, requests or ex- 
postulations, jumping at their mother's side or 



BAD HABITS 179 

clinging to her skirt quite regardless of her pre- 
occupation. Unfortunately, the mother who 
has brought such a state of affairs about, must 
herself correct it, no one can remove from her 
shoulders the weight of her own mistakes. 
The habit of whining can easily be corrected 
by giving the child instant and complete atten- 
tion when he first speaks, with an occasional 
rebuke at the unloveliness of his manner of 
questioning her. Children naturally wish to be 
given full attention when they address their 
parents. The mother who refuses to her child 
the simple gratification of sincere and un- 
divided interest when he speaks, is sure to find 
in him sooner or later the miserable habit of 
whining, which may cling to him for years. 

Thumb-sucking 

Thumb-sucking is a habit so common to chil- 
dren that hardly any baby escapes from at least 
a mild attack of it. It is a perfect tyrant once 
it establishes itself in the nursery, and should 
never be allowed even for a moment by the 
mother who is watchful for her child's best 
development The results of thumb-sucking 
are usually these: enlargement of the tonsils, 
protruding teeth, distortion of the roof of the 
mouth, flat thumbs, restlessness while asleep, 



180 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

breathing through the mouth at night, cough- 
ing, discomfort during illness, and a decided 
susceptibility to cold, owing to the constant in- 
flammation of the tonsils, which makes of them 
very hot beds for the growth of disease germs. 
If the habit is taken in time, while it is still 
only a tendency, it can easily be corrected by 
the use of mitts, sold for the purpose, or made 
at home. If the habit has already become 
marked, the thumbs must be regularly painted 
with oxgall or liquid quinine, the taste of which 
is usually quite sufficient to break the habit. 
In obstinate cases the child's hands must be 
bandaged. No effort is too great to expend 
if the result means banishment forever of the 
unfortunate habit of thumb-sucking. Biting 
the nails, a habit equally common and equally 
unattractive, may be treated in the same way. 

Rocking at bed-time 

The child is yet to be found who is either 
happier or better for having been rocked to 
sleep. On the other hand, we have many in- 
stances on record of increased nervousness 
and irritability in babies as a result of the 
habit. It is equally important for both the 
mother and the child that this habit be broken 
— or what is better still, never formed — for 



BAD HABITS 181 

they are both quick to feel its ill-effects. By 
it the mother loses the most valuable hour of 
her day, the hour in which she wishes to lay 
aside her household cares, and enjoy the com- 
panionship of her husband. She has every 
right to this hour, and nothing short of extreme 
foolishness on her part should cause her to 
dedicate it to the rocking of her child. Reg- 
ularly, at the same hour every night, the child 
should be bathed, fed, and laid in his bed in a 
darkened room, where he should stay until 
morning, with the exception of a night feed- 
ing during infancy. If this rule is carried out 
from birth, there will be no clash of wills, but 
if the too-indulgent mother once stays beside 
her baby, or lifts him from his crib after he 
is put there for the night, he will demand the 
same attention every evening until it is soon a 
firm and fast-rooted habit, governing his life, 
and hers, inexorably. Three nights of dis- 
cipline are sufficient to teach the baby the lesson 
of all lessons most important for him to take to 
heart — namely that he must turn over on his 
little side and put himself cheerfully and hap- 
pily to sleep, while his mother, who has been 
so devoted to him all day, enjoys her well- 
earned evening of rest. It is equally important 
for the baby's health as for the mother's nerves, 



182 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

that he should never, even if ill, be rocked to 
sleep. If he is tired, and his mother wants 
to cuddle and rock him, it should not be done 
at bed time, but rather at the twilight hour 
when little ones grow weary, or in the heat of 
the day when they want a rest or change of 
position. In this way there will be no danger 
of forming a habit. 

Slang 

The slang heard by children at school and 
on the street with a dreadful fatality soon be- 
comes part of their own speech, and the habit 
of using incorrect and improper words is prob- 
ably the most difficult of all bad habits for the 
mother to correct in her growing children. In 
some ways it is hardly fair to blame the child 
for contracting this habit. Environment, and 
his ready genius for imitation are really re- 
sponsible, and the child, unconsciously, is made 
a victim of both. There are several ways of 
breaking up this habit. Be very careful what 
kind of children are allowed intimacy in your 
home. It is wise to practice a strict doctrine of 
elimination in regard to the school and street 
friends your child will be sure to make, often 
without your knowledge. Your knowledge 
and consent will be needed, however, if the 



BAD HABITS 183 

various intimacies are to thrive, and here you 
can put your strict veto upon the undesirable, 
and cultivate the desirable; in this way block- 
ing off those friends whose language and man- 
ner point to a careless home training, drawing 
closer such children as seem gently nurtured. 
Children absorb everything that comes with- 
in their range with equal rapidity — good and 
bad words are both drawn into the child's in- 
telligence by the same law — therefore to 
counteract the influence of incorrect speech, 
use always yourself the best forms of English 
at your command. Not prudish copy-book 
phrases, but the strong, sound, wholesome 
words with which our language is blessed. 
Never cut off the ends of your words, nor al- 
low slang to creep in to your sentences. Pure 
English spoken in the home is one of the best 
ways to counteract and overcome slang. Then 
there must be the constant, tireless — but al- 
ways kind — correction of the fault. Re- 
member that there is a time in the life of 
every normal child when he will be particu- 
larly susceptible to the allurements and delights 
of using slang. Be a little tolerant just at 
this age, but at the same time see that the 
words do not become so securely embedded in 
his language as to form life habits. Con- 



184 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

trolling a child's friendships, speaking good 
English yourself, and the daily correction of 
his faults of speech, should help you greatly in 
overcoming and finally breaking forever the 
unattractive habit in your children of using 
slang. 

Untruthfulness 

It is a very sad moment for a mother, when 
she is brought face to face with the fact that 
her child has not spoken the truth. Untruth- 
fulness and deceitfulness in a character are 
poisons that soon cause the deterioration of the 
whole, however good may be the other traits. 
There are few better ways of influencing chil- 
dren to be truthful than by example. It is 
nothing short of a sin against the child's soul 
for his parents to tell him anything that is not 
absolutely the truth. Yet how many mothers 
and fathers have formed the habit of telling 
their children whatever may come into their 
heads to turn off undesired questions; of exag- 
gerating, of " fooling " them. These parents 
are sowing the seeds of untruth broadcast in 
the impressionable soil of the young child's 
mind, and are themselves chiefly responsible for 
the serious failing of a lack of truthfulness in 
the child that later darkens and shadows the 



BAD HABITS 185 

career of the man. Children often get into a 
habit of petty lying at school. Only the high- 
est standard of morals and honor in the home 
will counteract this tendency, and gradually 
impress itself upon the child as the nobler, bet- 
ter way. Never doubt your child. It is the 
surest way to make him deceitful. Be candid 
with him, truthful in your smallest word or 
action and you will be doing to the fullest ex- 
tent of your power your part toward cultivat- 
ing in him the blessed spirit of truth, with- 
out which the finest character loses so much of 
its potential force. 

The passionate child 

The passionate child is a great problem to 
his mother. She often looks at him, writhing 
on the floor, his little face crimson, and his 
hands clenched, and asks herself what she 
can do to tame him, and teach him aright, and 
help him to know and control himself. Al- 
though passionate outbursts of temper are 
usually faults of temperament, or may have 
their origin in his physical condition, there is 
after all much in allowing the child to be 
passionate as a matter of habit. Such children 
carry into middle life a scowl and pout, 
never seen on the faces of children who have 



186 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

been taught early the valuable lesson of self- 
control. To break a child of the habit of 
showing his temper in public, simply refuse 
to allow him to remain within sight of any 
member of the family. Do not reason or scold 
with the passionate child, for he is in no con- 
dition to listen. Begin when he is a tiny baby, 
and when he is in a fit of temper carry him 
away, where he will be perfectly safe, yet quite 
alone. Study his disposition and try to ob- 
tain a right understanding of his nature. 
There is a great deal of gallery-play after all 
in a child's exhibition of passion, and he will 
very soon cool off when there is no audience. 
At the very first sign of temper, then, shut 
the child up alone, and never attempt to 
argue or talk to him. When he is quite recov- 
ered, and his little body still heaving with sobs 
is held close in your arms, tell him what you 
want him to be, and try to show him in pic- 
tures easy for the little mind to understand 
how great a thing is self-control, even in a little 
child. 

Telling tales 

The common habit among school children, 
that of telling tales on one another, encourages 
the meanest side of their nature to grow. All 



BAD HABITS 187 

children wish to bring home their joys and 
sorrows. Whilst these remain impersonal, or 
treat of school life along general lines, the 
mother need not feel anxious, for indeed it is 
necessary that she should learn all she can about 
that side of their life from which she is in so 
many ways shut out. But she should re- 
fuse absolutely to listen to gossip or tale-bear- 
ing about friends, neighbors or school teachers, 
for only in this way can she break in her chil- 
dren the unlovely habit of tattling to her and 
to one another about the affairs of other per- 
sons. Children should be taught while they 
are still very young, that what they see in their 
own home, or in the homes of friends, is sacred. 
Their sense of honor in this respect should be 
continually stimulated by a determined unwill- 
ingness in the mother to listen to gossip or 
tale-bearing, even in their mildest forms. It is 
surprising how quickly the sense of honor, 
dormant in all children, will respond to this 
form of treatment, and what good results of 
character and disposition it brings with it. 

Destructiveness 

Parents often complain of the spirit of de- 
structiveness in their growing children, which 
shows itself in an utter disregard of the per- 



188 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

sonal belongings of others. This habit — for 
it is nothing but a habit — can be corrected by 
giving the child something definite to do. The 
energy of the developing child is something 
quite outside of the comprehension of most 
parents. Therefore, not understanding it, they 
punish it as an offense. On the other hand, 
activity is really that thing in the child which 
aids most in his growth, and which is most in- 
dispensable to him if he is to develop properly. 
Children, when they reach the destructive age 
(and all of them do) should be given a place 
in the house where they may be turned loose 
for a part of every day. A board with nails 
to drive into it has cured many boys of the 
habit of kicking and hitting the furniture. 
Plenty of paper, pencils, crayons, paints, scis- 
sors, and a place to use them, has turned the 
tendency in unnumbered children from pure 
destructiveness, to a definite form of occupa- 
tion. Children must romp and play, but the 
way to turn this habit of careless destruction 
to something less harmful, and in the end per- 
haps instructive, is to allow them to vent their 
energies on toys and games provided for the 
purpose. Do not crush the energy and en- 
thusiasm of healthy, robust children — use it, 
give it employment, try to understand it. 



BAD HABITS 189 

Crying to be taken up 

Children very quickly learn the power of 
their own lungs, and when a hearty cry brings 
mother, grandmother, sisters and aunts to the 
cradle with toys, sugar and endearing epithets, 
it does not require many such efforts for the 
baby to learn the full range of his new power, 
and to use it most tyrannically. It is a wise rule 
for the mother to adopt, never to indulge her 
baby when he cries. It is best for her to at- 
tract his attention and win him back to smiles 
before she takes him up or gives him the wished 
for toy. If this plan is not followed, the baby, 
as he grows older, will make himself most 
objectionable to everybody outside the adoring 
family circle, by crying for everything he 
wants, and by expressing his smallest wish in 
immediate and lusty yells. How shall he know 
better if older heads have indulged him, and 
even taught him the very trick that brings so 
much discomfort to other people? A few 
weeks of strict training along the lines of no 
indulgence at the time of crying will soon teach 
him a lesson that will make his entire child- 
hood happier, and certainly make him more 
lovely and acceptable to his friends and to the 
world at large. 



190 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

To correct the habit 

To the mother who is attempting to break 
her child of any one of these bad habits, there 
is one thing needful for her to possess. It 
is an unfaltering yet at the same time per- 
fectly kind perseverance. Scolding, nagging, 
fault-finding, only emphasize in the child those 
very qualities she would correct. Children, 
with the quick instinct of wild animals, in- 
stantly scent wavering in a parent. There- 
fore, be firm, not cross. Say little ; act. Chil- 
dren respect action, and are the very first to 
respond when they feel that a genuine effort 
is being attempted for their good. Every 
child is an unconscious criticism upon his 
parents. He is the sum total of their blun- 
ders, and the white slate of his nature carries 
many black strokes against their management 
of his life. Mistakes we every one of us 
must make in the bringing up of our children, 
but let us not be ignorant! Let us, especially 
we mothers, give time and thought to our 
children's future, and, working back from 
that future as we see it in our dreams, 
endeavor to fit them for it by means of that 
present which is so truly ours, and in which 
wf are helping them to live to-day. 



BAD HABITS 191 

Imagination in children 

Children possess one golden asset which is 
more or less lost to those who are higher up 
in the scale of development — imagination. It 
is by this ladder, and do not think that it is 
frail or made of dreams, that they most often 
climb up into the land of reason and hard facts. 
Once there they knock the enchanted ladder 
from under their feet, never guessing that it 
was a good fairy in disguise who will never 
visit them again. On each step of this ladder 
of imagination the child pauses to ask ques- 
tions of those who have already made the 
assent. Exactly in proportion to the amount 
of truth and love with which he is answered, 
will his confidence and power to mount in- 
crease. 

The imagination of a child runs along in 
two quite separate lines. There is the passive 
phase, in the glow of which the child lives and 
breathes without any particular effort of will. 
In a kind of subconscious half-light images 
pass and repass, impressions are received, 
changes take place. He is not consciously 
piloting those changes, but nevertheless they 
do take place. This is very different from 
the active phase, where his imagination builds 



192 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

vigorous dream castles, clothes brain people 
to live in them, tumbles them down, rebuilds 
them; directing events, making conversations, 
and playing with an energy and intensity that 
is remarkable. In these plays the crude poetry 
of the child's nature is always breaking out, 
where, half-veiled by ignorant remarks it lies 
hidden for those who care to stoop to read. 
Facts dropped by older people are grasped at 
with passionate eagerness, and the child be- 
gins at once to clothe them with the bright 
colors of his brain. Imagination takes them 
up, and they are changed. Butterflies are 
flying flowers; trees are the homes of little 
birds; low shrubs are hiding places for the 
fairies; holes in the earth are the portals of 
elfdom; and so it goes. This quick response 
of the imagination in children is one of the 
most interesting of all the varied phases they 
present, and the delicate piping notes of their 
fancy are in a great measure within our hands 
to guide. 

Words are continually pouring from a 
child's mouth, showing w r ith what intense 
rapidity his mind works. Listen for a mo- 
ment to the monologue, and you will find that 
he has surrounded himself with a host of 
unseen companions. Over and over again you 



BAD HABITS 193 

will hear a certain name, probably that of an 
imaginary friend, who is far closer to the little 
one's heart than any " grown up " can un- 
derstand. A mother I know has to treat 
with the greatest respect the imaginary friend 
of her little girl of three. A chair has to 
be provided for her at table, food offered, toys 
presented, conversation arranged so that she 
may be included, all with a gravity never once 
broken in upon. The imaginary good-night 
kiss given, her own little daughter goes hap- 
pily to bed, holding out her hand to her silent 
companion. The mother heard her say one 
evening, when she had trudged to the top 
step of a long flight : " Hurry up. Don't be 
fo flow." This child derives the utmost com- 
fort from her imaginary friend, whose un- 
obstrusive little shadow will probably follow 
her faithfully until a real friend breaks the 
charm by presenting the more solid joys of 
actual companionship. 

Fear 

Unfortunately the plays and imaginations of 
children are not always happy. Lurking on 
the outskirts of their life is always the mys- 
terious, the alarming, the dreadful. The same 
quick play of fancy that guides a child in his 



194 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

happiest moments, will just as quickly direct 
him toward anxious and apprehensive 
thoughts. Some very painful hours are spent 
by children in fear of they know not w 7 hat, 
and in anxious watching for some hidden evil 
that never comes, though it is so pitifully an- 
ticipated. Superstitious words, spoken by 
ignorant nurses have more than once cast a 
gloom over the bright mind of an imaginative 
child ; and dark, hidden or perplexing thoughts 
should be kept away from him by the same 
rigorous watch as in disease and want. Phy- 
sically healthy children are not often troubled 
by these unhappy brooding thoughts, and they 
are usually an indication to the mother that 
all is not right with her little one. In perfect 
health, the momentary wanderings of the 
imagination toward unpleasant fancies will do 
no real harm, for the child will soon throw 
them off in the absorbing hours of play, when 
he practically ceases to be himself. 

Toys 

At this time in the child's life toys begin to 
play a very important part. 

The meaning and ethics of toys deserves 
more consideration than the average parent 
usually gives. The words of one of Helen's 



BAD HABITS 195 

babies, " We don't like buyed dolls/' holds a 
world of thought. By supplying mechanical 
animals that walk, dolls that speak, and woolly 
lambs that " baa/' we are dwarfing the child's 
imagination, and curtailing the power meant 
to be exercised in his life, by toys. Toys are 
really only framework for the child to hang 
his dreams upon, and the old-fashioned toys, 
conspicuous for what they could not do, pro- 
vided hours of play for their young owners, 
whose ingenuity had to be called upon every 
moment to supply deficiencies, and whose op- 
portunity for " pretend " was therefore un- 
limited. It is a farce that so orders the child's 
play that he must sit still in his little chair, 
while a grown-up, who knows nothing about 
the joys of " pretend," makes elaborate prep- 
arations for winding up and showing off 
costly mechanisms that improperly bear the 
name of toys. " Don't touch," is all that he 
hears, and presently the animated dog, or 
beautiful talking doll, is laid away on the top 
shelf of the nursery cupboard until another 
day. No child develops his imagination with 
such toys as these. So early in life does the 
ego pronounce itself that the dearest play- 
things are those the child has made himself. 
The turning of a soap box into an express 



196 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

wagon has caused thrills in the hearts of many 
little boys, that no glorious painted object from 
the best toy shop could ever rival. Making 
a rag doll all herself has provided endless 
hours of intense pleasure to hundreds of baby 
girls. " Having everything,' 5 which parents 
fondly think will make their children happy, 
very often does quite the opposite. Discon- 
tent always follows selfishness, and an idle 
brain very quickly makes children cross and 
unruly. Having nothing, on the other hand, 
teaches the little mind to be inventive (the 
greatest mental pleasure we have), and causes 
it to look for its playthings among the left- 
overs of the family life. 

Little things cause such a child unbounded 
delight, and in his happy, active brain are 
ideas and ideals which visit very few rich 
babies in their crowded nurseries. This may 
be the reason why so many of the great creat- 
ive geniuses of the w r orld have come from the 
poorest surroundings, where all the light they 
had was from the candle burning within their 
own souls, and where individual effort, and 
self-expression was their sole joy. In pro j 
viding toys for children, the end in view 
should be the development of the imagination, 
for on this quality will greatly depend the 



BAD HABITS 197 

happiness they will be able to draw out of 
life. 

The ability children have to give a personal- 
ity to that which is totally inanimate, is one of 
their best and most wonderful gifts. Toys are 
alive, and must be tenderly handled; animals 
have feelings that may be easily hurt ; consid- 
eration must be shown for all the family of 
broken and disordered dolls. One little girl of 
two saw her first crescent moon through swim- 
ming tears, for to her acute imagination the 
poor moon was " broke " hopelessly and for- 
ever. Another little girl was so tender of her 
doll's feelings that she would not allow her 
mother to speak of the fact that the doll 
was not real, for " she had been trying all 
her life to keep the doll from knowing that 
she was not alive." 

The power of endowing playthings with 
personality is one of the sweetest sides of 
childhood, and the consideration and love 
bestowed by a little maid upon her disfigured 
doll, shows that she is unconsciously, yet 
nevertheless surely, laying the foundation for 
a useful life of sympathy, tenderness and 
womanly tasks. The boy who labors and 
struggles over the different parts of a mechan- 
ical device he is trying to construct, is prepar- 



198 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

ing for his fight with the great world, which, 
standing at the gate of his childhood, beckons 
him onward to years of consecrated and patient 
toil. 

Children put all the vigor of their growing 
selves into their playtime work, and one of the 
secrets of keeping them at home, is to give 
them one room in the house, which is their 
own. This room, fitted up with simple toys, 
books and tools, provides them with building 
material for their imagination to work upon, 
and we see it changed many times a day into 
a background for all the shifting scenes, dra- 
mas, and heroics their little brains desire to in- 
vent. The child to whom the events of play are 
vivid, and the reality of make-believe intense, 
is very likely to possess, when he develops, 
able opinions and a creative mind. 

Like all great actors, the child is absolutely 
unconscious when he plays. He seems to be 
in a kind of hypnotic trance, and he plays 
much better where there is no interference nor 
suggestions from without. A child whose 
mother was once reading aloud, when asked if 
he could quite understand, answered, " Yes, 
perfectly, if only you do not start explaining." 
This shows better than any complicated argu- 
ment how the child's world is perfect unto 



BAD HABITS 199 

itself. His inner vision needs no promptings 
from older heads. In fact the full develop- 
ment of the child's imagination is best reached 
in a solitary world, where, at the first sounds 
of the footfall of a grown-up, his genius for 
make-believe, and his pretty tricks of fancy, 
" fold their tents like the Arabs, and as silently 
steal away." 

The child's table manners 

As soon as the child is old enough to receive 
and understand correction, his table-manners 
should be taken in hand, for there is a grace 
that comes with good manners, that the mother 
can ill afford to let him grow to manhood 
without. In other words, he should be gently 
and systematically shown how to use his little 
spoon, how to drink his milk without spilling, 
and how to eat his bread and butter with 
propriety. Besides these things, he must be 
taught to ask politely for what he wants, and 
to be quiet and gentle while in the company of 
others. It is never too soon to make a point 
of these, the small things of life, for they 
rapidly come to mean so much, and to act very 
strongly for or against the growing child in his 
contact with other people. 

As the child emerges from babyhood, it 



200 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

usually becomes convenient for him to take one 
meal at least daily with the family. Then it 
is that the difficult task begins, for he must 
learn how to control himself at table, and 
how to fall in line with the prescribed etiquette 
of the family. 

Home-training in manners is always more 
or less dependent upon how strictly the parents 
themselves conform to rule and precept, for it 
is by the sure way of example that parents 
teach good manners as well as the other lessons 
of life to their children. But besides example, 
in this case, there must be constant oversight 
and daily, hourly correction, if the wayward, 
ignorant, hungry little child is to be per- 
manently graced with the gift of attractive 
table-manners. The first step toward accom- 
plishing this is to avoid daily slurrings of 
whatever rules the mother sees fit to make. 
There should be no such thing as " company 
manners " at the table. The mother whose 
intelligence and capacity bounds the home, must 
set a certain standard for her table, and she 
must see that it is lived up to. Every meal 
should be served correctly — no matter how 
simple it is — for by this means only are the 
little niceties of life protected. It is a great 
temptation to the mother of many children to 



BAD HABITS 201 

grow lax in her attentions to the details of her 
table. Nothing can be more unfortunate, 
for at once the whole tone of the home is 
lowered. She must set a standard — simple 
enough to be lived up to — and she must 
stimulate in herself the desire to keep her 
ideal unblemished. She must use every effort 
to prevent herself from becoming slovenly. 
By example and daily correction only w r ill she 
be able to teach her children, while at their 
meals, to do by force of habit that which is cor- 
rect. 

The first thing to be carefully overlooked is 
the position of the child at table. Does he 
stoop, does he lean over his plate, does he 
slouch down on his left arm while eating with 
the right hand? First of all examine his 
chair. It should be the right height, with 
rungs across it for his feet, and it should have 
a long straight back and narrow seat. If he 
is placed in the proper kind of chair no excuse 
for stooping should be accepted, for he must 
learn to sit upright and gracefully at his meals. 
Before the quick word of blame is spoken, 
however, it is well to give the matter of his 
chair some thought, for a child is sure to stoop, 
and can make no progress in acquiring good 
manners, if he is uncomfortable in his seat. 



202 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

After the chair is arranged for, and the proper 
attitude at table understood, it is time to take 
up the matter of how he is to handle his fork 
and spoon. 

The child should feed himself with his right 
hand, keeping the left one always in his lap. 
It is such a temptation for him to facilitate 
matters by pushing the food on his spoon 
by means of his left hand, that this rule of 
keeping it in his lap should be insisted upon. 
It is surprising to those who have tried it what 
a great help this simple rule is in training the 
child at table, and also what a dignity and 
grace it adds to his position while eating. 
Occasionally a small piece of bread may be 
used as a " pusher," but he should be urged 
to eat entirely with his right hand, his food 
having been previously cut up and arranged 
conveniently upon his plate. Nothing is more 
unappetizing to a stranger than to sit at table 
with a child who is allowed to finger every- 
thing about him. The habit of holding both 
his hands in his lap when not eating, and the 
left one almost throughout the meal, will do 
much toward keeping the straying little fingers 
away from the objects surrounding his plate. 
Once out they are sure to get into all sorts of 
mischief. 



BAD HABITS 203 

A rule should be made about this from the 
day the child first comes to table. 

Soon the child will begin to use his knife and 
fork as well as his spoon, and must be taught 
how to hold them. Many a child has his ap- 
pearance at table quite spoiled by an awkward 
way of doing this, which can very easily be 
corrected. The first thing necessary is to pro- 
vide him with a small table-set of his own, the 
better to enable him to carry out instructions. 




The Child's Tray 

It would be impossible to hope for grace in a 
child who must make his delicate maneuvers 
with the same heavy silver used by " grown- 
ups." The spoon or fork should be taken 
lightly in the right hand, as near the end as 
possible. To grasp the spoon close to its bowl, 
or the fork near its prongs is most awkward. 
The knife should be used as little as possible 
by children. It is unwieldy and dangerous, 
and once their meat is cut up it should be 
removed from their plates. However, when 



204 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

the child grows old enough to be trusted with 
it, he should be told to hold it in such a way 
that his fore-finger escapes the blade. The 
knife should be held near the end of the 
handle, the fore-finger resting above the point 
where the handle joins the blade. These 
things seem almost too trivial to consider, and 
yet how many men and women have fastened 
upon them forever remnants of bad manners 
they have failed even in maturity to overcome. 
It is those persons w r hose table etiquette re- 
mained uncorrected as children, who so fre- 
quently show 7 their ignorance to the world as 
grown men and women. 

A child can be taught very early in his life 
to eat and drink noiselessly. He should also be 
told — and repeatedly told until he obeys — 
only to take small pieces of food into his 
mouth, and to chew r them slowly, always keep- 
ing his mouth closed. When these points are 
observed by children, it is a sure sign that they 
have been trained by careful parents, for un- 
fortunately such graces do not come to them 
naturally. Children, in the matter of eating, are 
very like little animals, and to train and cul- 
tivate them requires endless thought and pa- 
tience. Noisy eating and drinking is after all 
only a habit, and it is very easily corrected. 



BAD HABITS 205 

While being shown how to drink, the child may 
also be told to wipe his mouth before and after 
he lifts his glass to it. 

It comes naturally to most children to pile 
food upon their bread. Every child sooner 
or later indulges in this unlovely habit. Nev- 
ertheless it must not be allowed if the child 
is to have correct and attractive table man- 
ners. His food should be eaten with his 
fork, which he holds in his right hand. His 
bread, already spread and cut in slices, should 
be taken in his left hand, and eaten separately. 

To " pick bones " at the table is decidedly 
inelegant. While he is still in the nursery, the 
child may be allowed the pleasure of sucking a 
chicken wing or biting and chewing the savory 
end of his chop. At the table, however, this 
is not permissible. Besides being awkward 
and unlovely, it is impossible for the child 
to take a bone up in his fingers without ne- 
cessitating a thorough washing of hands and 
face in hot water when the operation is over. 
If this is done at table it is hardly appetizing 
to the other guests, and if he is removed to 
have it done elsewhere, conversation is stopped 
and the whole room is soon in confusion. 

When the meal is finished, the child should 
be shown how to place his knife and fork side 



206 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

by side upon his plate, and fold his bib. He 
should never leave his spoon standing up in his 
cup. The spoon should be used only for stir- 
ring the milk or cocoa, and when this is fin- 
ished it should be placed immediately in the 
saucer. If he asks for the reason tell him 
that for one thing a cup with a spoon in it is 
easily upset. 

Talking at Table 

After these, a few of the practical details 
of the child's table manners, have been cor- 
rected, he shows yet another side, which re- 
quires as much, if not more, guidance from 
his mother. It is his mental attitude, or per- 
sonal manner w r hile at table. The child must 
learn the difficult task of making himself and 
his wishes subservient to the general trend of 
talk going on about him. Until he has been 
taught that he must not interrupt, there will be 
little peace at those meals to which he is 
allowed to come. The conversation, con- 
tinually above his head, must be allowed to go 
on, and he must not utter his shrill complaint, 
or enforce the attention of his mother while 
she is occupied. To whine for forbidden 
dainties, to beg for extra helpings when he 
has once been denied, to interrupt and con- 



BAD HABITS 207 

tradict and talk boisterously, all this must be 
overcome if the child is to really possess in 
any degree the grace of good manners. 

Children, unfortunately, by nature are sure 
to show at some time impatience, rudeness and 
carelessness at table. To counteract this, the 
mother must be constantly watching and cor- 
recting. To be firm, gentle and self -controlled 
is not easy. Endless patient reprimands are 
necessary before " Please " and " Thank you " 
become life habits. " Such a little thing," you 
say — ah, yes; but how attractive in a child! 
Gentleness, unselfishness and consideration for 
others follow in the train of good manners, 
and such softening influences as these, no 
mother can afford to let her child be without. 

It does not do for the mother to plead want 
of time or preoccupation when it comes to 
giving her child the advantages of home-train- 
ing in table manners. Nowhere is she so pres- 
ent in her child as when he is invited out to 
dine. He carries with him the expression of 
her effort, he is the outward and visible sign 
of her daily strivings in his behalf. Ignorance 
in table etiquette clings to a child all his life, 
and no matter how well educated he may be- 
come, some of the crudities of his neglected 
youth will hang about him, and be a daily 
handicap. 



CHAPTER X 

THE AWKWARD AGE 

The period of the child's life when he is 
most disappointing to his parents is probably 
that time of light and shadow between his 
twelfth and his fifteenth birthday. It is called 
the " awkward n age, and it is indeed awk- 
ward in more ways than can be enumerated 
at a first glance. 

Many moods and vagaries show in the child 
during these years. So unexpected are they 
it is hard for the mother to realize that 
they are by nature sporadic. Instead, she feels 
that they have come to stay, and fear and 
disappointment take possession of her heart. 
She is the last person — when rightly she 
should be the first — to acknowledge that they 
are a part of his developing personality, and 
indicate no fundamental change of any kind. 

Instead of thinking him peculiar, unnatural, 
" queer/' she should realize that in showing 
this strange side of himself he is only normal. 

208 



THE AWKWARD AGE 809 

He is following the new star in his life, and 
his obedience to it marks the adolescent youth 
of all ages. 

The star is the sense of personality that 
has suddenly quickened in his life. For the 
first time he realizes that he belongs to him- 
self. He has his hand upon the throttle of a 
new power, and he is delirious with the joy of 
it. This fills him with an exuberance never 
reached by him again, even through all the 
delights of his maturer years. The wise 
mother reverences this, and leaves it undis- 
turbed. 

At this time of dawn and sunrise the child 
is very difficult to handle. Only by the ut- 
most patience and self- forget fulness can the 
mother retain her place as confidante, when, 
with the first stirring impulses of individuality, 
her child begins to fight his battle for moral and 
physical freedom. 

We must not forget to look at these years 
of development from the child's point of view. 
Full of vague dreams and aspirations, he is par- 
ticularly sensitive to a rough touch or harsh 
word. His presence offers little pleasure to 
anyone, for he is full of whims and vagaries, 
which are fit causes for impatience in others. 
He is usually quite as much of a torment to 



210 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

himself as to his parents. The green shoots 
appearing above the brown earth of nursery 
tea and gingham pinafores are very tender, 
and as they grow the mother must try to 
smile on them, for if she turns away they will 
quite surely lean out toward another sun, and 
perhaps never bloom in the home garden at all. 

The Power of Sympathy 

Would it not be well for mothers to prepare 
themselves to meet this ordeal which is lying 
in wait for them, long before it actually comes, 
by realizing that their children are separate 
beings, endowed with temperament and at- 
tributes quite as individual as are their own? 
Mothers very often make the sad mistake of 
denying their little ones the rights of per- 
sonality. The first joys of awakening per- 
sonality which run riot in a child's nature, once 
felt, are too often the death knell of parental 
authority. Only sympathy will avail to tide 
over the necessary time which must elapse until 
the child emerges of his own volition from the 
unlovely clouds of anarchy and chaos. At 
this trying period of intimate home life, when 
she has safely reared her little ones, and led 
them to the door of individual life, sympathy 
is the only weapon left for the mother to use. 



THE AWKWARD AGE 211 

Greater than coercion, stronger than tears, nev- 
er failing, once it establishes its kingdom in a 
human heart it has been the power which many 
times has led wilful girls and truant boys back 
to sweetness and submission. 

How can a mother establish the sympathetic 
relations for which she longs, yet which seems 
attended by so many difficulties? Chiefly by 
example, good-humored forebearance, and lack 
of criticism. There is no influence like ex- 
ample, and a wayward child will respond to it 
when argument and coercion are powerless to 
avail. 

It is very hard for a mother to school her- 
self to patience when she sees her child com- 
mitting daily follies before her eyes; but fore- 
bearance at this stage will pay better in the 
end than any other course. Faith in the noble 
principles she has herself instilled earlier in 
his life will surely be rewarded. To avoid 
actual collision, with all that it brings in its 
wake of strife and bitterness, is one of the 
surest ways of attaching the vagrant little heart 
to herself. A congenial atmosphere in which 
to unfold his own particular kind of bloom is 
what the child's nature craves, and the efforts 
of the mother to impose her own personality 
upon him, meet with very little success. The 



212 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

stronger the child's nature, the greater is the 
indulgence and leaway necessary, but a few 
well defined rules thoroughly understood, must 
be held over him for absolute unqualified 
obedience until he is of age. 

How true it is that one of the most difficult 
things for a mother to understand is the exist- 
ence in her child of characteristics funda- 
mentally different from her own. A dull, 
phlegmatic mother sometimes finds herself try- 
ing to control a talented, high-strung daughter. 
Her course is often one of continual fault- 
finding. The girl has " nerves," and the 
mother laughs and scolds and does not under- 
stand. When a cultivated and artistic woman, 
who has had aspirations for her children from 
the hour of their birth, finds her swans turning 
into unmistakable geese, she cannot alter things 
by taunting them with their failures, or by 
trying to impose upon them the training she 
desires. Differences, incompatibilities and dis- 
appointments are sure to occur, and when 
strong individual traits appear in a developing 
child, his mother should try not to put herself 
in the way and cry "stop" — however great 
may be her temptation to do so. The result is 
pretty sure to be only a shattered, saddened 
parent, and a more determined child, who will 



THE AWKWARD AGE 213 

soon disappear in the distance without even 
looking back. 

The mother must often do nothing but watch 
and love, when her whole soul is one energy of 
devotion in behalf of her child. It should help 
her to realize that all the seeds of the child's 
future life are germinating in him when he is 
thus beginning to " grow up," and that her 
unshakable faith in his better self will do more 
to help him conquer his weaknesses, than any 
homilies she may invent. This faith is sure 
to act as rudder, and finally it will bring the 
little ship about, headed for home. It will 
carry a wonderful white sail pointed high into 
the heavens, which sail is the child's own self, 
won by the mother in patience, trust and love. 

The growing boy 

It is one of the signs of his approaching 
manhood that the growing boy should wish to 
escape from the authority and restraint of 
home. Being ignorant how to guide or control 
his life renders his situation awkward in the 
extreme. But this ignorance is the very step 
by which he mounts to an understanding of life 
and of himself. In the mother's personal dis- 
appointment and apprehension for her child's 
future, hard words are out before she is aware. 



214 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

This is her great mistake, for the bitter 
thoughts expressed at this time are never for- 
gotten. The boy's sensitiveness seems abnor- 
mal, and he absorbs impressions, good and bad, 
with greedy haste. Without the utmost toler- 
ance, wisdom and self-control on the parents' 
side, misunderstandings are bound to occur. 
Although forgiveness comes when the turbu- 
lence of adolescence cools, it is then often too 
late to re-establish the first relations of simple 
trusting love. 

The Child's friends 

There is one way open to the parents, of in- 
fluencing their boy at this time. It is a simple 
way, so simple that it has been often over- 
looked. It is to make it possible for him to 
entertain his friends in his own home, instead 
of meeting them at street corners or in public 
places. By this means a watch can be kept 
over him, in so light a manner that it is quite 
unsuspected. 

The parents must first choose a good school 
for their boy. By so doing they fulfill their 
duty of at least starting him in the right 
direction. Then, by making it convenient for 
him to see his friends within his own home, 
they will be able to guide him gently, without 



THE AWKWARD AGE 215 

arousing his suspicion, and perhaps guard him 
entirely from the temptation of making unde- 
sirable friends. 

One of the greatest dangers a boy runs is 
that of making unworthy friends. For the 
comfort of conscientious parents, let it be 
said that the boy who is gently reared, and 
carefully nurtured among good people, will 
seldom attract to himself any but like-minded 
boys. If he should do so, let the parents ques- 
tion themselves, for there has been something 
wrong in their management of his life. There 
is a knot of bad boys in every community. A 
little experience of their habits will soon dis- 
gust the child who has been carefully brought 
up. He will soon find his own level, and will 
be drawn into a circle of friends who will 
encourage and help him onward. Home in- 
fluence is everything to a boy when he is 
tempted to throw in his lot with unsuitable 
friends. He knows he cannot bring them 
home, and that he would be ashamed to in- 
troduce them to his sister. This love and 
reverence for home, planted in the boy's heart 
when he is a child, will grow stronger with 
every step he takes in life, and will more often 
than not keep him true to his highest self. 

The father can do much to instill into his 



216 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

growing boy high principles and a love of the 
truth. These qualities are not developed over 
night, they are the fruit of long years of 
thought, prayer and example. In the end the 
boy will profit thereby, and will find when he 
emerges from the awkward age, that the in- 
stincts of truth and honor planted in his soul 
as a little child, have grown bright and strong 
and will be lights to lead him into the way of 
a noble and incorruptible manhood. 

What attributes should parents seek to help 
them in directing the nascent instincts appear- 
ing so strongly in their growing children ? 

To begin with, insight, patience, humor and 
health; a willingness to give themselves, which 
parents are so strangely loath to do, and self- 
control, which is indispensable if they would 
themselves control. Even with all these, and 
a most earnest desire to prepare the child 
efficiently for life, parents confront a prob- 
lem full of puzzles and perplexities. 

People often make the common mistake of 
thinking that children are easy to understand. 
Unfortunately it is just the reverse. The 
child, as a social factor, is being studied to- 
day over all the world, and yet the child 
problem is still unsolved. 

In the soul of the little child, the most com- 



THE AWKWARD AGE 217 

plcx instincts, and confused elements are at 
war. Children cannot be classified, labeled and 
ticketed, as are some of our other modern dis- 
coveries. Every child that is born into the 
world bears the burden of the mistakes and 
follies of his ancestors, written indelibly in the 
tissue of his body, and the limitations of his 
brain. Heredity and environment combine to 
make his fight for individuality more difficult. 

The child comes into undisputed right over 
himself at just the time of greatest personal 
weakness. Still possessing the judgment of 
a child, and a child's restricted point of view, 
he suddenly finds himself inheritor of the 
whole gamut of human passions and possibil- 
ities. Life opens before him in a blaze of 
wonder and joy. Everything is possible, for 
he still believes in himself. This period from 
twelve to sixteen is the most critical of all 
ages. Stanley Hall calls it the age of tem- 
porary insanity. The child has found Alad- 
din's lamp, and everything he touches turns to 
mystery and gold. Anything may be expected 
of him. He feels that he is the " tad-pole of 
an archangel," and longs to find his wings. 

Development goes by leaps and bounds. 
Unseen preparations are going on while the 
roots of the plant feel their way down into 



218 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

the earth. Suddenly the bud slips its silver 
sheath, and the new spirit takes its abode 
where only the child ran riot the day before. 
Apparently there are no intermediate grades; 
the soul shows its face from time to time, with 
added attributes, gathered we know not where, 
and it performs its holy tasks in silence and 
mystery. 

Set a high standard 

What must the parents do who, watching 
over the child, desire beyond all else that the 
instincts arising in him may be nurtured and 
firmly fixed 'or good? 

To give the child a high standard is one of 
the best ways to teach him to control and 
understand himself. Expect of him always 
the noble acts and sentiments you would have 
him possess. Never allow him to think he 
sees in your eyes the hesitancy of doubt, the 
momentary dimming of the eye of faith. 
Imitation is one of the child's strongest qual- 
ities and seeing actually present in his parents 
the high standards they talk to him about will 
do more toward helping him to live an honor- 
able life than all the words, explanatory and 
otherwise, that were ever written upon the 
subject. 



THE AWKWARD AGE 219 

For a certain number of years the child 
must necessarily see life through his parents' 
eyes. To appeal to his imagination by touch- 
ing upon all the noble accidents of daily life 
with truth and understanding, will guide him 
in forming his own judgment. This will 
greatly help him towards a satisfactory com- 
prehension of himself. He will put none but 
the best interpretation upon all the new ideas 
brought home to him in the course of his de- 
velopment, and he will think purely upon sub- 
jects, which, as he matures, he will find it 
needful to consider. 

In his heart of hearts, every young person is 
firmly convinced that he is going through emo- 
tional and mental experiences never felt by any 
living soul before. Children at this time fre- 
quently turn against home, wish to run away, 
imagine themselves cruelly treated and mis- 
understood, crave solitude, and become nerv- 
ous, imaginative and unnatural. Only the 
most delicate touch of the parental hand is 
tolerated. It is just here that parents are 
usually found to be so sadly wanting, and yet 
it is after all the mother's golden opportunity. 

The same child who shrinks from coercion 
and advice will often respond at once to gen- 
tleness, wisdom and example. Praise, instead 



220 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

of fault-finding, will do wonders toward open- 
ing the hardened heart of the growing child. 
Ridicule and sarcasm must be eliminated. To 
be willing to answer questions truthfully often 
gives to the mother the much needed glimpses 
of her child's inner conflicts. But the most 
valuable gift she can bestow upon him is the 
instinctive knowledge of her unerring support 
and faith. " E'en though he slay me, yet will 
I trust him," is the true motto of motherhood, 
and only a child utterly devoid of noble and 
generous instincts will fail to struggle hard 
that he may surely reward that faith, with 
bright gifts of personality and achievement. 

The mother's own eyes are the most critical 
that will ever gaze upon her child, and her 
heart responding quickly to his noble impulses, 
will be the first to detect the false notes of 
character, which strike sometimes so softly 
that the whole world is ignorant. But the 
mother knows. 

The father's influence in the home 

It is unfortunately very easy for boys and 
girls to fall into the habit of thinking of their 
father as " too busy " to care, or too much 
outside their intimate life of every day to be 
consulted upon small questions, having to do 



THE AWKWARD AGE 221 

with school, friends, amusements, or their 
reading. Thus the father gradually finds him- 
self pushed aside, and when important crises 
arise, where a father's judgment would be of 
the utmost service, he is totally without the 
power to influence them. 

There are many difficulties in the way of 
companionship between father and child, even 
in cases where the parent fully realizes his 
responsibilities and wrests time from the pres- 
sure of his business to try to come closer to his 
little ones. The difference in age can never 
be entirely overcome, try as he may. It is 
impossible that his point of view should coin- 
cide with that of his child, and a restraint and 
bashfulness is the result. This reserve, so 
unwarrantable from the father's point of view, 
is one of the trials of parenthood — and un- 
fortunately there is nothing for it but a patient 
acceptance, as it is without remedy. To fight 
against it only brings hostility, and a parting 
of the ways, sometimes forever. It is ab- 
solutely necessary for a father to understand 
that his opinions cannot be imposed upon his 
children. He must remember always they are 
individual souls, and though he may lead them, 
they can never be driven if they are worth their 
salt. 



n% THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

The Child's Personality 

What is the best course to pursue when a 
father wishes to draw near to his growing chil- 
dren, sharing their life wherever possible, and 
be their strong helper, ready sympathizer, and 
firm friend? 

A fundamental principle, without which 
nothing can be accomplished, is a due regard 
for the rights of personality. Every one, even 
a young child, expects his separateness from 
other people to be acknowledged. This can- 
not be disregarded, even by a parent. The 
father must realize from the moment it begins 
to be, that his child is a separate human being, 
who may have gifts differing widely from his 
own, and who must be guided, never driven, 
toward the relation of sympathy which it is his 
wish to establish. In homes where the chil- 
dren are silent, uncommunicative, avoiding 
their parents, the cause can usually be traced 
back to the unfortunate habit of ridicule — 
absolutely fatal from the lips of father or 
mother, often unrealized by the parents them- 
selves, who in a crisis would give their life- 
blood for their children, but who are unable 
to control the biting words and witty sarcasms, 
the scars of which their children will remember 



THE AWKWARD AGE 223 

when their hair is gray, and carry with them 
to the grave. 

It would be a great help in the matter of 
establishing sympathy, if the father would 
make it a point to devote some time daily to 
his children from earliest babyhood. What 
father is not better for romping with his chil- 
dren? And from a simple beginning of this 
kind much may grow. It is not until his chil- 
dren begin to be men and women that the father 
meets his real problems. Preparing for these 
should be his constant thought. 

There is nothing like companionship to knit 
close the differing tastes and years of father 
and child, and to bind them together with an 
indissoluble bond of love. By sharing the tiny 
pleasures of childhood he builds a very fair 
foundation for sharing the problems, perplex- 
ities, and sorrows that later on are sure to come 
to both. 

Some fathers hold that their position as judge 
and arbiter in the home circle deprives them of 
the confidence of the children ; that because they 
must mete out the punishment, they are feared 
rather than loved. This should not be the case. 
The father must of necessity correct and chas- 
tise, but if he is careful never to reopen the 
wound once it is closed; to punish but never 



224 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

to speak after the incident is over; to forgive 
and forget as soon as the fault is atoned ; there 
should be no bitterness carried on from day to 
day, and the father in his attitude of dispas- 
sionate judge should demand rather an added 
respect and love. But the father must be self- 
controlled before he attempts to control his 
children. A sincere rebuke given without 
anger, and with the earnest desire to benefit 
at the heart of the speaker, will never bring 
anything but obedience and love, even from 
the most stubborn of children. 

Sympathy is a gift. We are born with it 
or without it as the case may be, but it can 
be cultivated from a very small beginning, and 
no father, however wrapped up in his work, 
or cold and dispassionate toward the people in 
this busy world of ours, should allow the pos- 
sibility of sympathy between himself and his 
children to be cut off without making a hard 
fight. 

Children cannot believe that anything which 
rouses their own enthusiasm could possibly fail 
to interest those whom they love. We older 
ones become so used to lack of sympathy in 
our pursuits that we can hardly appreciate the 
passionate eagerness and imagination of little 
children, and the desperate need they have of 



THE AWKWARD AGE 225 

some one to understand. We must try to live 
life over again with them, and be quick with 
our " oh list " when the angel speaks, for the 
angel will be the heart of a little child, turning 
to us for sympathy, and the angel does not 
speak twice where there is no one to listen. 

"Til tell your father if you don't stop." 
These words may often spring to the lips of 
the mother in her tried moments ; none can be 
worse for her to utter. The father should 
not be held up as an instrument of torture 
to his children, nor should he ever be called 
upon to inflict punishment for offenses not 
committed under his eye. The mother should 
be as wise, as tolerant, and as able in the mat- 
ter of controlling her children, as the father 
himself; and in these days of mental rather 
than physical punishment, there is no excuse 
for the unlovely habit of holding him up as an 
object of terror before his little ones. 

Discussion between husband and wife re- 
garding the problems of each child's develop- 
ment is most helpful, but it should not take 
place before the children. An understanding 
as to what is best to do should be arrived at 
together, and carried out by both whenever 
the occasion arrives. In homes where father 
and mother pull different ways, and give con- 



226 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

flirting orders, all discipline vanishes, and there 
can be no unity. If doubt arises at a critical 
moment the father should be called upon to 
decide, and his influence and power in the home 
always held predominant. 

A good father's love and understanding has 
been the force that has shaped many a char- 
acter for noble ends, and he should accept his 
responsibilities as the greatest opportunity life 
can offer him, for influence, power and suc- 
cess. 

Be truthful 

One of the principal duties of a parent to his 
child is the duty of absolute truthfulness. No 
father or mother, under whatever circum- 
stances, can ever find justification for the 
slightest deviation from the truth. Indeed it 
is beholden to parents to " set a watch before 
their mouths, and to keep the door of their 
lips." 

To promise a believing little child some- 
thing impossible of fulfillment is a sin. To 
exaggerate, state falsely, unduly emphasize, 
speak deliberately what is not true for what- 
ever ends, are faults that may destroy the 
character of the child, wholly innocent as he is 
by nature of deception. 



THE AWKWARD AGE 227 

Tell the absolute truth to your children, and 
the time will come when for your return you 
will see in their eyes that clear, steadfast look 
of honesty that will cause them to take their 
places in life worthy of dependence, able to 
receive the confidence of their friends, and to 
influence their environment for good. 



CHAPTER XI 

EDUCATION 

The child who for the first time climbs the 
steps of a school-house with his satchel of 
brand new books under his arm goes there 
with his faculties dormant. To awaken those 
faculties is the great object of education. The 
mind should be invigorated, strengthened, pre- 
pared for education, not only to receive but to 
seek. To make a child want to know is the 
supreme reason for education. Supplying 
facts is altogether secondary. Knowledge, as 
it is handed out in all large schools, cut and 
dried, and in the same form, regardless of the 
child's natural bent or individuality, may more 
than likely be quite forgotten as time passes; 
but enthusiasm once aroused, and perceptivity 
quickened, the child takes his first step toward 
the highest form of learning — self -education. 
To tap the rock of indifference and allow the 
spring of living waters to flow in the awak- 
ened mind, is the genius of all great teachers. 
The most entirely desirable gift with which a 

228 



EDUCATION 229 

master can dismiss his pupil on the graduation 
day is not by any means a brain filled with 
dates, or a memory stacked with isolated bits 
of book-learning; but a thirst for knowledge 
in an eager, trained and receptive mind. Plato 
expresses the beautiful thought that education 
is to comprehend not only the whole of this 
life, but it is to be the preparation for another 
life, which we shall enter even as little children, 
there to begin our education afresh. 

Kindergarten 

Although many children are sent to school 
long before they are eight years old, it is not 
until this age is reached that the real education 
of a child may be said to begin. Whatever 
children learn before their eighth year is 
picked up in a more or less cursory manner, 
and cannot be said to contribute to the ground 
work of their education proper. What school- 
ing they do have usually comes to them in 
the form of kindergarten. 

There is much to be said for and against 
kindergarten. The mother who cannot afford 
to keep a nurse, and whose babies are in con- 
stant danger while she endeavors to accom- 
plish the necessary work of the day, finds it a 
priceless boon. She knows that her children 



230 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

are safe, overlooked, and living in a room that 
is clean and sanitary. The most useful side 
of kindergarten is probably this — that many 
babies who would receive no care at all at 
home during the morning hours, are treated 
scientifically and hygienically by trained hands 
and under government inspection. 

But there is another side to the picture. 
Many little children are totally unfit to acquire 
anything before they are seven or eight years 
old. Their nerves may be unstrung, and their 
health affected in a very subtle manner by 
ever so slight a strain upon their minds. Doc- 
tors point to the age of seven as a critical 
age in the history of the child's physical de- 
velopment. Before this year is safely passed 
it is surely dangerous for a child to leave 
home early in the morning in all kinds of 
weather. Furthermore, when he reaches the 
class room he will be treated as one of many, 
and there will be no one at hand to notice an 
overheated face, a droop at the corners of the 
mouth, or a weary sigh over the blocks that 
will not come together into the proper figure. 
Only the eye of love is on the alert to see these 
things. 

Kindergarten is necessary only when the 
home is incapable of giving to the child the 



EDUCATION 231 

advantages and oversight he needs until he 
reaches his eighth year. 

The ideal life for the child up to that age, 
is a life of occupation, exercise, and constant 
training ; all with a view toward preparing him 
for his first school year. A healthy, normal 
existence, much in the open air, and much with 
those who love him and are trying to train him 
in the discipline of life, is best for any child. 
He need be little troubled with books or figures. 
When the times comes he will be all the better 
able to cope with such tasks, because he brings 
with him to the struggle none of the ailments 
and infirmities of precocity. 

Precocity 

Precocity is a most unenviable characteristic 
to find in a little child. In most cases a pre- 
cocious child fails to develop with the same 
regularity with which slower children unfold, 
and he is usually found below the standard 
when the final school competitions arrive. 
Bishop Hall writes, " I never dared hope much 
from these great beginnings of intellect and 
memory, which are nevertheless so much ad- 
mired in children. I know well that a child 
must first come to his strength, and if those 
things which are proper to a later age show 



232 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

themselves earlier, he is not the better for it." 
It is a safe rule for parents to adopt, never to 
allow their children to " show off." Progress 
in school, verses learned, or advances made in 
music, should be sympathetically appreciated at 
home, but as a rule the child who has tricks, 
and whose mother is continually forcing him 
to the piano, or begging him to recite pieces of 
classical poetry to which he is entirely unequal, 
makes herself and her child alike unwelcome. 
That shrewd observer and commentator upon 
human nature, Dr. Johnson, was always most 
indignant at mothers who bring their children 
forward in this manner. When asked once if 
he would like to hear two little girls recite 
Gray's Elegy alternately, verse by verse, he 
answered, " No, let them both recite it at once, 
and then the noise will be sooner over." 

Do not let me for one moment confound the 
precocity common to all children whose minds 
are being forced at home or at school, with the 
budding of genius, which looks out from a 
child's face even in the cradle, and which is a 
thing quite apart, priceless, and entirely be- 
yond the control of parents or teachers. 
Thomas Arnold, of Rugby, was given at the 
age of three a set of Smollett's historical works 
as a prize, so accurately could he describe the 



EDUCATION 233 

acts of England's kings. Ruskin, also at the 
age of three, began his life of contest with 
things as he found them, by appealing to an 
imaginary congregation, saying : " Be dood, 
people, be dood." We all know the story of 
little Mozart, playing charmingly at the age of 
four, and composing before he reached his sixth 
year. But these interesting stories of great 
minds in their infancy, bear the distinct marks 
of genius, which, being divine, knows no law. 
For the majority of children, it is safe to say 
that the methodical, earnest plodder is the one 
who is most likely to succeed, and that precocity 
should be discouraged in every case and looked 
upon as a menace to the child's future health — 
both mental and physical. 

Taking the child's inherited tendencies into 
consideration, as well as the increased demands 
upon his vitality, we find that the best prepara- 
tion for life is a care- free youth, and at the age 
of eight, or nine, regular occupation at the best 
school the parents can afford. Long before 
his eighth year, however, the child's mind has 
begun to operate, and the mother must realize 
the importance of her position, as the first to 
drop into the little brain seeds that will be im- 
mortal. The beginning of any work is of the 
utmost importance, and the time to give impres- 



234 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

sions in the right direction is when the child's 
sensibilities are tender. 

Individuality in the child 

In this new kingdom, the life of their child, 
the parents soon begin to realize that there is a 
portion over which their right as governing 
power fails to prove efficient. The child be- 
longs to the parent, and the parent is respon- 
sible for the actions of the child. There is, 
however, a vast field of thought, instinct and 
endeavor in the mind of the developing child, 
that is very little influenced by the fact that it 
belongs to anyone. It is this priceless quality 
of individuality that makes the child worth 
anything to the world, and it is just this quality 
that the average parent so often overlooks. 
Even if the child's whole life is bounded by 
" thou shalt n and " thou shalt not," there is yet 
belonging to him an invisible world — his per- 
sonal world — and it is here that rules fail and 
the egotism of parenthood is overthrown. 
This personal world belongs strictly to the child 
himself. It is his gift from God, the stamp of 
individual life upon his soul that makes him 
different from all other souls. It is in trying 
to force and control this side of the child, that 
thoughtless parents bestow so much mistaken 



EDUCATION 235 

effort. Blind to the child's rights over himself, 
they inflict misery by trying to plant their own 
full blown views in the place of those tender 
shoots of distinct and individual life which are 
the child's very own, his most precious quality 
of individuality. It is upon just this part of 
the child — spiritual, and intangible, and in no 
way belonging to the parents — that the en- 
during and immortal structure of his life will 
rest. 

Every child has the right to individual de- 
velopment, no matter how contrary to the par- 
ental desire that development may be. Per- 
sonality cannot be destroyed. Repression of 
the child's inner life is usually followed by 
dangerous perversions — spiritual and moral. 
The fact that the child belongs in so many ways 
to the parents and i? under their control in all 
the details of his life should not lessen the 
respect with which his individuality is viewed 
by them. 

To help the child to build his own char- 
acter — not to build it for him — is the end 
that they should have in view. 

It is necessary, though, that this sympathy 
and respect for the rights of personality, 
should go hand in hand with a careful and 
complete authority in practical things. Other- 



286 THE CARE OF THE CHILD 

wise the sympathy will degenerate into weak- 
ness, and the respect evaporate into a careless 
form. It is impossible for the child to develop 
unless he has learned to obey. 

Obedience in all the details of life — liberty 
of soul and thought — that is the ideal condi- 
tion to find between parent and child. Liberty 
that is stimulated by spoken sympathy; obedi- 
ence that is demanded as a parental right. 

The little child is entirely unfitted to claim 
his own rights. If he is sensitive he will suffer 
greatly before he gains control of his individual 
powers, and learns to use the natural gifts of 
defense and attack with which as a human be- 
ing he was endowed at birth. Between the 
sensitive spirit of the child, and the pushing 
arrogance of older minds, there is unfortu- 
nately no barrier. There is no gift to the child 
like the gift of a sheltered life, a place in which 
to grow normally. By providing such sur- 
roundings for him the parents will be doing 
their best toward starting him along the path 
of right development. To give him space in 
which to grow — that is the secret. Efforts 
to rule his inner self; efforts to force the well- 
seasoned opinions of middle age upon his un- 
prepared soul; efforts to form too quickly his 
inexperience — only destroy the beauty of his 



EDUCATION 237 

youth. The child's inner self does not belong 
to the parent in the same sense as does the 
material living of his daily life. A child who 
is dominated by his parents is little else than 
a grace-note to their chord. 

The child, unless especially gifted, cannot 
control the circumstances under which his life 
develops. It is for the parents, then, to study 
the question of his rights, to decide what be- 
longs to him, and what through him, is rightly 
under their control. 

To order the daily life of the child, and to 
have authority therein, and in deeper things to 
influence and guide — this is all the parents can 
undertake to accomplish, with safety to their 
child's inner life. There will remain, after 
all this is done, a spiritual kingdom outside of 
their command — a personality away from 
their authority. This is the child's inner self, 
and it in no way belongs to them. 



INDEX 



Activity of children, 121. 
Adenoids, 157. 
Air in nursery, 31. 
Albumen orange, 92. 

water, 92. 
Appetite, 95. 

Lack of, 129. 
Apple, Baked, 131. 
Apron, The double bath, 

51. 
Arrow root blanc mange, 

163. 
Arrow root gruel, 93. 
Artificial feeding, 63. 
Awkward age, The, 209. 

Baby, best time for outing, 

25. 
" how to hold while 

dressing, 30. 
" napkins, 30. 
" poor appetite, 95. 
" Preparing for the, 
10. 

The sick, 99. 
" To feed the, 76. 
Baby's basket, The, 12. 
" bed, The, 18. 
" bottles, the, To pre- 
pare, 69. 
clothes, The, 14. 
cry, A, 40. 
u result of pain, 
27. 



Baby's cry, taking up on 

account of, 27. 

cry, when normal, 

26. 

first wants, 11. 

food, The, 35. 

sleep, 32. 
Barley jelly, 91. 
Barley-water, To make, 79. 
Bath, The, 48, 125. 
" Best hour for, 29. 
" Double apron for, 

" How to give the, 50. 
" A low table for the, 

49. 

" one a day, 65. 

Temperature of, 28. 
Bed, The baby's, 18. 

" To make the, 19. 
Beef juice, 91. 
Beef-tea, 161. 
Biliousness, 112. 
Blanc mange, 131, 133. 
Bleeding from nose, 149. 
Bottle, in hot weather, 96. 

to heat the, 76. 

when it agrees, 87. 
Bread poultice, 155. 
Bruises, 146. 
Burns, 148. 



Chicken broth, 131. 
jelly, 161. 



239 



240 



INDEX 



Chicken-pox, 146. 


Eating between meals, 128. 


Child, passionate, the, 187. 


Education, 229. 


Child's friends, 215. 


Egg-nog, 162. 


Chocolate blanc mange, 


Emergency chest, Contents 


133. 


of, 153. 


Chill, A, 150. 


Example, 164. 


Cleanliness, 45. 


Exercise, 62, 120. 


Coddled egg, 92. 


Eye, The, 55. 


Cold, 113. 


Eyes, Sore, 112. 


11 with fever, 150. 


Eyesight, 156. 


Colic, in. 




Condensed milk, 67. 


Father, The, Influence in 


Convalescent, the, Delica- 


the home, 221. 


cies for, 161. 


Fear, 194. 


Cream toast, 93. 


Feeding, Artificial, 63. 


Crib, with quilted lining, 


Feeding, Formulas for, 77, 


the, 20. 


Flax-seed poultice, 154. 


Cry, A baby's, 26, 27, 40. 


Food, articles forbidden, 


Crying to be taken up, 196. 


129, 


Cuts, 147. 


for second year, 93. 




" quantity at a meal, 


Daily regimen of child, 38. 


86. 


Deafness, 158. 


Food table, The, 70. 


Destructiveness, 188. 


Foods other than milk, 89. 


Diet, 125. 


Foreign bodies, 151. 


" for children of three, 

126. 
" for children over 


Fractures, 147. 


Growing boy, The, 214. 


four, 127. 




" for convalescent 


Habit, Correction of a 


child, 163. 


bad, 191. 


Diphtheria, 141. 


" The value of, 22. 


Discipline, 45. 


Habits of children, Bad, 


Disease, contagious, Nurs- 


177. 


ing of, 135. 


Hair, The, 59. 


Diseases of childhood, 134. 


Tonic for, 60. 


Disinfection, 136. 


Health, Value of, 35. 


Disobedience, 178. 


High standard, Setting a, 


Doctor, How to help the, 


219. 


115. 


Imagination, 192. 


Ear, The, 57. 


Individuality in the child, 


Ear-ache, 109. 


235. 


Early defects in children, 




155. 


Junket and tgg t 13*. 



INDEX 



241 



Kindergarten, 230. 

Laxatives, 116. 
Lime-water, To make, 79. 
Measles, 137. 
Medicine, patent, 114. 
Milk, The, 80. 

" Condensed, 67. 

" Modified, 85. 

" Pasteurized, 81. 

" Punch, 162. 

" Sterilized, 84. 
Mouth, The, 56. 
Mumps, 145. 
Mustard plaster, 155. 

Nap, The, 119. 

New-born, The eyes of, 33. 

Nose, The, 58. 

Nose-bleed, 149. 

Nurse, To be a good, 99. 

Nursing mother, diet, 95. 
the child, impor- 
tance of, 36. 
Time of, 95. 

Oatmeal gruel, 162. 
Obedience, 164, 167. 
Orange jelly, 133. 

Pain after meals, 97. 
Pasteurizer, Home-made, 

81. 
Patent medicine, 114. 
Personality, 223. 
Plan versus caprice, 41. 
Plaster, Mustard, 155. 

Spice, 155. 
Poultice, Bread, 155. 

Flax-seed, 154. 
Precision, Value of, 21. 
Precocity, 232. 
Preface, 7. 

Preparing for the baby, 10. 
Prunes, Stewed, 131. 



Questions, The child's, 164, 
172. 

Refrigerator, The, 72. 

Home-made, 

A, 73- 
Regularity, 45. 
Rest and quiet, 43. 
Rice- jelly, 133. 
Rice-milk, 92, 132. 
Rocking at bedtime, 181. 

Scarlet fever, 138. 
Second year, Diet for, 94. 
Self control, 45. 
Sick child, care of the 

.mouth, 105. 
Sick child, how to feed a, 

103. 
Sick child, meals, 104. 

" " sending for 
doctor, 106. 
Sick child, visitors, 106. 
Sick-room, The, 101. 

" medicine, 103. 
" rules for moth- 
er, 100. 

" " ventilation and 
heat, 102. 
Slang, 184. 
Sleeplessness, 97. 
Spice plaster, 155. 
Stammering, 160. 
Stings, 149. 
Stooping, 159. 
Sympathy, The power of, 

211. 

Table manners, 200. 
Table, talking at, 207. 
Talking, time for first, 98. 
Teeth, The, 125. 

" when first cut, 98. 
Teething, 108. 
Telling tales, 183. 



242 



INDEX 



Temperature of baby's 
room, 25. 
of the bath, 
28. 

Thumb-sucking, 180. 

Toast, cream, 93. 

Tonsils, enlarged, 157. 

Toys, 195. 

Truthfulness in parents, 
227. 

Turpentine stupe, 154. 

Ulcers in mouth, no. 
Untruthfulness, 186. 

Vaccination, 33. 
Ventilation of nursery, 31. 
Vomiting, 96, 97. 

Walking, 98. 



Water, 94. 

" The child in the, 

53. 
Weaning, 87. 
Weaning begun, 67. 
Weighing the baby, 24. 
Well child, Care of the, 

118. 
Whey, 163. 
Whining, 179. 
Whooping-cough, 142. 

Young mother, A few ques- 
tions that 
may trou- 
ble the, 24. 
" questions 

concerning 
baby's food, 
95. 



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